(CMR) Sri Lankan chef Palinda Dissanayake (36), who was found guilty of the indecent assault of a 15-year-old girl on a public bus, was sentenced to 29 months in prison on Wednesday, 24 April.
Dissanayake was initially charged with four counts of indecent assault allegedly committed against three females, including the 15-year-old girl, on public buses on three separate occasions. However, he was only found guilty on one count and acquitted on the other three counts.
Dissanayake reportedly admitted to touching one of the women but said he was flirting with her.
Reports are that on 26 June 2023, he indecently assaulted the teen by touching her leg repeatedly. The teen was taking the bus for the first time to meet her father in George Town when Dissanayake ‘cornered' her on the back seat of the bus and touched her leg three to five times before she “chucked” his hand away.
Before the assault, the girl who changed seats several times to accommodate passengers getting on the bus felt a tapping on her shoulder, which she thought was because of the movement of the bus.
The court heard that when she turned around, Dissanayake smiled at her, and she smiled back to be polite because he was a stranger. She eventually had to go to the back seat where Dissanayake was seated. He reportedly moved close to her, and she moved away until she had nowhere to go. He then proceeded to rub her legs several times.
The teen told the bus driver and her father what had happened, and the matter was reported to the police. CCTV footage was recovered to identify the man who had already disembarked the bus. The victim was able to identify him from a photo lineup.
The teen expressed shock and surprise at the incident and has not taken the bus since; she has also experienced anxiety, according to the victim's impact statement.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Cheryll Richards used a starting point of four years, which was reduced to 29 months due to mitigating factors, including that Dissanayake had no previous convictions in Cayman, Sri Lanka, or Dubai, where he previously worked as a chef.
She also considered that he had a low risk of reoffending and that he had a young family in his home country. Dissanayake is married with one child in Sri Lanka but has been employed in the Cayman Islands for seven years.
Justice Richards said the offense is serious and that the proposed sentence of 29 months is proportionate to the offense.
Time already served will be taken into account. He is also to be given a 50 percent credit of 81.5 days for the time he was wearing an electronic monitoring device on curfew.
Justice Richards also implemented a sexual harm prevention order for 5 years, indicating that it was not for the court to determine if Dissanayake should stay or leave after serving his sentence.
Dissanayake was ordered not to contact the victim or her family. He is also not to have any unsupervised contact with any child except for his own children or where he is supervised.
He should not communicate with children under 17 without prior approval from the police or court and should not reside within 100 meters of schools, parks, or other places visited by children.
He is also not to participate in events or employment where children are present.
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