A 44-year-old resident of St. Vincent has been sentenced to concurrent prison terms after a jury found him guilty of severe sexual offenses against a 13-year-old minor committed on a public passenger van. Demond Grant had repeatedly maintained his innocence against two charges: indecent assault of a child under the age of 15 and an act of gross indecency against the same victim, which took place during a public transport journey along the leeward coast of the Caribbean island on June 1, 2024.
Following a guilty verdict delivered by a nine-member jury, High Court Justice Rickie Burnett handed down the sentencing decision this Friday. Court documents outline the full sequence of the incident laid out by Justice Burnett: on the day of the offense, the 13-year-old victim, hereafter referred to as VC to protect her identity, boarded a leeward-bound passenger van at the main Leeward Bus Terminal alongside her older sister and a female friend of similar age. VC’s sister took the front passenger seat adjacent to the van’s driver, while VC and her friend settled into the back row of the vehicle. The friend sat by the right-side window, with VC next to her, Grant to VC’s left, and a second unknown male passenger occupying the left-most seat by the opposite window.
Halfway through the journey, Grant initiated inappropriate physical contact by brushing against VC’s leg. At first, the young girl assumed the touch was accidental and shifted her body closer to her friend to create distance. Instead of stopping, Grant moved closer to VC, deliberately running his palm up and down her thigh several times before progressing to directly touch her vagina, the most private area of her body.
Trapped in the back seat, VC was too afraid to speak up loudly. Sometime later, she noticed Grant had unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, exposing his fully erect penis while staring directly at her. In a desperate attempt to block further contact, VC placed her backpack between her body and Grant, but the offender made no move to stop his inappropriate behavior on his own.
When the van reached the next scheduled stop in a nearby community, VC immediately exited the back seat and informed her sister of what Grant had done. A heated public argument erupted between Grant and the victim’s sister, during which Grant flatly denied all accusations. VC’s sister then asked another passenger to watch over the girl for the rest of the trip.
Upon returning home that same day, VC disclosed the full incident to her mother. The following day, the mother accompanied her daughter to the local police station to file an official criminal report. Law enforcement located Grant three months later on September 17, 2024, and after formally cautioning him and conducting an official interview, arrested and charged him despite his continued denial of guilt.
During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Justice Burnett applied structured sentencing guidelines to the first charge of indecent assault. The judge set a starting sentence of four and a half years, equal to 45% of the 10-year maximum penalty for this offense. Aggravating factors cited included the victim’s status as a minor under 16, the large 31-year age gap between Grant and the victim, the offense escalating from leg touching to direct genital contact, the public nature of the assault that led to a disruptive verbal altercation in front of other passengers, and Grant’s failure to voluntarily cease the abuse even after VC attempted to block him with her bag. The court initially added six months to the sentence due to the overwhelming number of aggravating factors, as no other mitigating factors related to the offense itself were found.
However, the court acknowledged that Grant had no prior criminal convictions and was considered to be of good prior character, a mitigating factor that outweighed the offense-related aggravating factors tied to Grant as an offender. This led to a two-year reduction in the sentence. After deducting the three months and 19 days Grant had already spent in custody awaiting trial, the court ordered him to serve an additional two years, eight months and 11 days for the indecent assault charge.
For the second charge of gross indecency for exposing his penis to a minor, Justice Burnett again set a starting sentence of four and a half years, 45% of the maximum penalty. The key aggravating factor here was the public nature of the offense, which exposed other passengers on the moving van to the inappropriate act. The judge ruled that aggravating factors outweighed the single mitigating factor of Grant’s good prior character, adding three years to the starting sentence before applying a two-year reduction for the mitigating factor. After deducting remand time, Grant was sentenced to four years, two months and 11 days for this second charge.
Since Justice Burnett ruled that both offenses stemmed from a single continuous course of criminal conduct, he ordered the two sentences to run concurrently. This means Grant will serve the longer of the two sentences behind bars.