Leon Riley to be sentenced today for raping minor
By Zaya Williams
A man who was found guilty of raping a teenage girl in his retrial will be sentenced on Monday.
Leon Riley was convicted of rape and severe indecency again in a case that was retried after the accused won his appeal almost two years ago.
In April 2016, in the vicinity of Pensioners Beach, the defendant forced himself on a 15-year-old girl and was arrested and charged shortly after.
He was convicted of rape and severe indecency before High Court Justice Keith Thom in February 2019 after a jury found him guilty.
The judge then sentenced him to 15 years behind bars. But in November 2021, the man was freed after the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal overruled his conviction.
The appellate court scrapped the conviction and sentence and ordered a retrial, beginning in June with Justice Ann-Marie Smith as the new Judge.
In that trial, seven of eight jurors found him guilty again. He has been in prison awaiting sentence and will finally find out his fate on Monday.
This story was first published by Antigua News on October 23, 2023: antigua.news/2023/10/23/leon-riley-to-be-sentenced-today-for-raping-minor. © 2023 Antigua News. Republication without permission is not allowed.
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