CONVICTED fraudster Troy Webster was on Wednesday afternoon sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for sexually penetrating a girl without her consent on November 21, 2015, in the Sexual Offences Court of the Demerara High Court before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow and a 12-member jury.

He was found guilty in the proportion of 11 to 1 by a mixed jury.

In handing down her sentence, Justice Barlow told the court that Webster used one trick to another to lure the victim, then gained her trust which he later betrayed.
The judge added that the victim told the court that she can regain money and her job which she lost, but can never regain what was taken from her by the convict.
Barlow added that the convict tricked the victim and took her money and as such, society cannot condone what he did.

The judge imposed a 30-year sentence which he will serve after serving a 10-year sentence for fraud.

She however, urged Webster to use his ability in a meaningful way by getting involved in prison activities.

The accused in response told the court that the decision of the jury had shocked him, but stated that ‘they did what they had to’ after which he apologised to the victim for the pain he caused her. He said however that it was not rape, but consensual sex.
The accused then asked the judge for leniency.

Meanwhile, state prosecutor Tiffini Lyken told the court to consider an appropriate sentence, since Webster has other offences of fraudulent activities, for which he was convicted.

It was after 3pm that the 12-member jury returned to the courtroom after hours of deliberations, following the summation of the case on Wednesday with a guilty verdict in the proportion of 11 to 1.

There was no impact statement from the victim who was age 25 years old back in 2015 when the rape took place in the County of Demerara.
In his plea of mitigation, defence attorney Clyde Forde told the court that the accused is 38 years old and a father of two.

He has spent one and half years in jail on remand and he has expressed remorse to the victim.