BASSETERRE, St. Kitts — Officials from the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force have formally issued confirmation that Dr. Vance Gilbert has been sentenced to 12 and a half years of incarceration at His Majesty’s Prison in Basseterre following his conviction on two counts of sexual violence: rape and indecent assault.
Court documents and the official police statement outline that both criminal offenses for which Gilbert was prosecuted took place between March 1 and March 31, 2020. After a week-long criminal trial held from May 7 to May 12 this year, a jury returned guilty verdicts for both counts against Gilbert on May 27, 2026.
More than three months after the conviction, High Court Justice Patrick Thompson Jr. handed down the official sentencing order on September 9, 2026. Under the terms of the ruling, Gilbert received a 12.5-year prison term for the rape conviction, and a five-year prison term for the indecent assault charge. Justice Thompson ruled that the two sentences would run concurrently, resulting in an effective total custodial sentence of 12 years and six months.
In addition to the prison term, the court ordered Gilbert to pay a total of 9,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars in victim compensation. The compensation sum is split into two equal 4,500 Eastern Caribbean dollar installments, with the first payment due to the complainant by the end of 2026, and the second installment required by December 31, 2027. The court added a strict penalty for missed payments: if Gilbert fails to pay either installment by its deadline, he will face an additional six months of imprisonment that will run consecutively to his existing 12.5-year sentence, extending his total time behind bars.
The confirmation of the sentence closes a more than six-year legal process that began with the initial reporting of the offenses in 2020, marking a final resolution to the criminal prosecution in the St. Kitts and Nevis judicial system.