A self-confessed serial rapist has sought and received forgiveness from one of his victims he attacked in 2007.
Kester Benjamin made the appeal yesterday, as he was given an opportunity to address the victim of the crime after pleading guilty to grievous sexual assault and the abduction of the woman during a virtual hearing before High Court Judge Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds.
Benjamin said: “I know my words might not heal the hurt that I caused you and it will never heal the scars but I want you to know that I am really, really sorry.”
Benjamin, who in 2008 was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping a woman in 2002, claimed it took him several years of introspection while in prison.
“Now this is not an excuse, it is just an explanation and I think I owe you that explanation,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin claimed that while in prison, he enrolled in numerous programmes which sought to help him curb his urges.
“I would not say that I am 100 per cent cured but I know what I have to abstain from to ensure that I don’t ever do something like what I did to you that night,” he claimed, as he noted that he had to abstain from pornography.
“Most people do not understand sexual perversion. I have lived it and understand it, so I would like to help other people going through this because most of society will just take people like me and shaft them because it is a crime nobody likes,” he said.
Benjamin claimed that while in prison, his sister was similarly abducted and robbed but not raped.
“Hearing that made me understand what I was putting people through and I decided then and there not to be the problem anymore but to become part of the solution,” Benjamin claimed.
Benjamin went as far as to extend an apology to his other victims, whose attacks he was acquitted for the past.
“There are some cases that I won and I did, in fact, commit the crime. I don’t know if I can apologise to those people as well,” Benjamin said, before being stopped by Justice Ramsumair-Hinds, who told him she could only consider the case before her.
He also offered to pay compensation to his victim if and when he is eventually released from prison.
Given an opportunity to respond to Benjamin’s statement, the victim, who was present throughout the hearing, took it and said she accepted his apology.
“It was not a good experience and is still not a good experience. I still feel all types of emotions but I can accept your apology,” she said.
The victim said when she was first invited by the DPP’s Office to participate in the plea process and provide a victim impact statement, her family strongly advised her against it.
“My family was adamant that I should not participate but I felt as though it was important to me and for other people so I took the initiative to do so,” she said.
She claimed that while she long harboured anger towards Benjamin, she was surprised that her stance softened after a previous hearing, as she felt “sorry for him.”
“My response to them (her family) was that God would know what is in his heart and whether he is reformed and sorry,” she said.
She stated that she hoped that he could use his experience to positively help other similarly afflicted men.
“What you are going through is a sickness that did not start in your adult years. I am sure that there would be something that can be traced back to your childhood that you may not be aware of that would have caused you to be the way you are,” she said.
Ramsumair-Hinds commended the victim for her response.
“You are a woman of great courage to do what you just did...That is what I consider restorative justice,” Ramsumair-Hinds said.
According to the summary of facts in the case, which was read out during the hearing, the attack occurred on August 29, 2007, when the victim, then 17 years old, was returning home after attending classes at an institution in Petit Bourg.
The victim travelled to Port-of-Spain and was waiting for a taxi to take her to Diego Martin when she, a man and a couple boarded Benjamin’s car.
The victim claimed that he dropped the man and the couple off and left her for last as her stop was off-route.
The victim claimed that she became worried when Benjamin drove past the turn-off for her stop and said that he claimed that he had to pick up his wife and children first.
The victim said she was scared and was able to call a friend on her cellphone to tell her of what was transpiring.
She claimed that Benjamin drove up a steep incline and parked on a flat area bounding a precipice.
She claimed that she tried to call her uncle but he hit the phone from her hand and attempted to tie her up but she resisted.
She claimed that he then forced her to perform oral sex on him. Benjamin was about to rape her when a group of police officers, who were on patrol in the area stopped next to the car and rescued her.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the DPP’s Office agreed to recommend a 20-year sentence for grievous sexual assault and 10 years for the abduction.
Addressing Benjamin, Ramsumair-Hinds said that she would have to consider the recommended sentences and determine if they are appropriate in the circumstances.
She also noted that while the DPP’s Office and his attorneys recommended that his sentences run from when he was arrested and placed on remand in 2007, she would have to consider the fact that his time in custody was largely due to him being convicted of a previous attack.
She stated that she would also have to place him on the National Sexual Offenders Registry.
Benjamin was represented by Raphael Morgan of the Public Defenders’ Department while Danielle Thompson prosecuted.
Benjamin is expected to be sentenced on April 25.