Youth gets three years for sex with minor

Two weeks shy of his 22nd birthday, Tevin Hendrickson was sentenced to three years at Her Majesty’s Prison for having sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16, almost two years ago.
The accused will have the 21 months he spent on remand considered as part of his sentence. The police confirmed that this means the convict will remain incarcerated on this matter for another three months since a jail year varies between eight and nine months, based on good behaviour.
Yesterday, Justice Keith Thom heard from the accused and his attorney Kivinea Knight, who pleaded for leniency and asked the court to take into consideration his youthfulness and previously clean record.
Hendrickson, who pleaded guilty at his arraignment, did not waste the court’s time by going through a trial. He was 18 years old at the time the crime was committed.
In a social inquiry report, Senior Probation Officer Alvin Jarvis said that while Hendrickson was remorseful for his actions, he did not take responsibility for harbouring the young girl for two days and he would likely encourage that type of behaviour, should he again find himself in that position.
Although the convict claimed that he thought the schoolgirl was 16 — the age of consent — he told police in his initial statement that the virtual complainant had actually told him that she was 15.
The evidence presented in court was that in May 2015, the convict met the young woman at YMCA Sports Complex and they became friends and spoke to each other often.
On June 5, 2015, the girl attended school and then went to the said sports complex where she and the convict had a conversation, then left the complex together.
Hendrickson took the complainant to his brother’s home and while there, the 15 year old told her companion that she wanted to go home. He agreed to take her home after he had eaten, but did not and the two eventually retired to bed, in different rooms. However, they had a sexual encounter later that night.
Two days later, on June 7, the girl went home in the wee hours of the morning, but fearing that she would be in trouble with her guardian, she waited outside where her aunt met them. The police were then called.
In the police statement, Hendrickson admitted he had sex with the under aged girl because, “that’s what she wanted to do”.