Dwayne Hamilton, who raped a four-year-old girl when he was 16, was yesterday sentenced to 12 years for the crime.
Handing down the sentence was Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, who said that while consistency in sentences generally imposed for such offences must be strived for, the court found that the convict’s age at the time the offence was committed was a mitigating factor warranting a lower-than-usual sentence.
The judge was, however, quick to point out that Hamilton’s age was not to be seen as excusing his indiscretion nor as reducing the sentence to a slap on the wrist, even as she noted the court’s recognition that the child was of a tender age herself.
