Rapist shows no remorse

(CNS): Chief Justice Anthony Smellie handed down a prison term of 14 years to a 46-year-old George Town man on Friday for the rape of his former lover over a two year period. Philip Rose was sentenced to a further 14 years for abduction, three years for assault and 12 months for stalking his victim on the phone, all of which were ordered to run concurrently. The country’s senior judge said that Rose had “shown no indication of remorse for his crimes” and continued to see himself as a victim of the relationship. The chief justice told the convicted man that his behaviour could not be tolerated and the crimes were no less serious because he had known his victim.

The judge pointed to the severe trauma, both emotional and physical, that his rape and abuse had caused his victim and said Rose had been motivated by a desire to dominate and control the woman with whom he previously had a relationship. He said that Rose had exploited the vulnerability of his victim, who had submitted to his will because of her fear of being discovered and losing her job.

“Rape is particularly unpleasant because of the intimate proximity of the abuse of an act which is a fundamental means of expressing love,” the judge said.

With few mitigating factors in Rose’s favour and little sign of remorse, Chief Justice Smellie stated that the crime had to attract a significant period of incarceration, despite claims that the convicted man suffered from claustrophobia.

Rose was found guilty of the crime in December last year after a judge alone trial during which the court heard the abuse and threats Rose made to his victim in messages left on her phone. The victim testified that Rose had systematically stalked, harassed, abused and sexually assaulted her over a period of more than two years.

During the trial the victim, a former executive of the Cayman Islands branch of a major bank, recounted a harrowing ordeal of abuse, in which she became trapped through fear and embarrassment.

She described being stalked “every minute of the day”, with Rose being “always just 10 metres away” controlling her entire life through fear and intimidation. He followed her to and from work and whenever she went out, repeatedly turning up and knocking on the window of her apartment; constantly calling and texting her cell phones and her office line and making abusive threats. She described how he had physically assaulted her, raped her on several occasions and had also abducted her over a holiday weekend where he repeatedly raped her.

Rose had denied the offences, accusing his victim of being an abusive, jealous and controlling woman who had contrived the allegations against him after he had rejected her.