BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – EMMANUEL MILLS was today (Feb. 24) deemed a danger to society by his Lordship Justice Errol Thomas during his sentencing hearing at the Basseterre High Court.
“You are a danger to society, the public must be rid of you for a long time,” said Judge Thomas before sentencing Mills to 31 years in prison.
Mills was found guilty by a 12-member jury on February 8, 2011 and was sentenced to five years for burglary, five years each for two counts of assault with intent to rob that will run concurrently and 21 years for rape.
His Lordship said the seriousness of the case is that Mills, who was armed with a gun and a knife, had raped a woman in the presence of her niece, which must have been a very humiliating experience.
“No one ever witnesses a rape. Nobody rapes someone in front of anybody and, lucky for the niece, she was pregnant at the time,” the judge said.
He also said that after raping the woman, Mills demanded money and then asked the niece to take him to her mother to demand more money.
According to the social inquiry report that was presented in court by Probation Officer Wingrove George, “If this particular convict does not stop and take time to assess himself and do a reality check, then he could very well end up being a career criminal.”
“The frightening thing about Mr. Mills is that he has no moral, social, ethical and educational foundation which can prepare him to close this sinister chapter of his life,” the report stated.
The 21-year-old Saddlers villager was a student of Cayon High School but had dropped out in the fourth form. It was reported that he cuts grass for a living and has no previous conviction.
In his defence, Mills told the court that he was wrongly accused.
“The reason why I said that is when this so called incident happened it was just a rumour. Nobody was calling my name at that point when the incident did happen. People was only saying that it was me because they know that I used to be around those people,” he stated in the report.
Mills said he would like the judge to be fair and to be lenient with him because he wanted to be “out there” to take care of his daughter.
He was accused of breaking into the home of a Saddlers Village woman on August 29, 2010, whom he assaulted and raped during the process.
Seven prosecution witnesses including the victim, a doctor and two police officers gave evidence in court that suggested Mills had indeed committed the offences.
After the prosecution had rested its case, Mills, who was unrepresented, defended himself and called on two witnesses to support his not guilty arguments.
The case was tried in camera to protect the identity of the victim. However, SKNVibes learned that the witnesses were his mother and uncle who allegedly gave contradicting testimonies in court.
“The jury also rejected the lies your family came and told, although they had taken the oath to tell the truth,” Justice Thomas told Mills.
