Source Today Newspaper
GREAT BAY – The Court in First Instance sentenced Rolandito Olivio Nadicio Richardson last week to 12 years of imprisonment for two counts of rape and two counts of ill-treatment. The prosecution demanded 15 years at the trial that took place on October 12. The court granted two victims immaterial damages to the tune of 10,000 and 15,000 guilders, but attorney Geert Hatzmann said outside the courtroom that chances the victims will ever see this money is nil.
The court considered in its ruling that the 30-year old defendant had attacked several women in the streets without any provocation. “An elderly lady and a young woman have been brutally robbed and raped and the defendant has ill-treated two other women.”
The court ruling speaks of crimes without conscience and hold them against the defendant because he has never explained his actions. It did not help, that Richardson, who was born in St. Maarten and lives in Anguilla, also has been convicted for violent crimes, theft and sexual crimes in Anguilla.
In the opinion of the court this defendant is a serious threat to women and he must be removed from society for an longer period of time.”
The defendant robbed a woman on April 20 of two gold necklaces on Back Street. On February 27, he raped a 62-year old newspaper vendor in an alley in Philipsburg, robbing her of a measly $2; on the same day he ill-treated a 66-year old woman on the tourist market in Philipsburg by punching her in the face. Exactly two months later, on April 27 he allegedly raped another woman.
While Richardson claimed to the court that in this latter case the sex was consensual, the victim told the court quite a different story. She said that she had been attacked from behind, robbed of her money ($30) and forced into oral sex and intercourse.
In between these two rapes, Richardson ill-treated a woman who was jogging on the beach in Belair on March 27, by grabbing her by the hair, punching her in the face and kicking her. In all cases, the victims recognized the defendant in a photo confrontation.
