July 11, 2019
(CMR) John Michael Soriano (31) was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in Grand Court Tuesday following a conviction for rape of an acquaintance in West End, Cayman Brac.
Soriano, a Filipino father of two had only recently arrived in Cayman before the incident took place in September 2018. It was revealed in court that the victim was a friend of Soriano’s girlfriend and had been severely traumatized by the rape. It was revealed that he had been drinking that evening. She had gone to visit her friend and and lay down on the bed as she was not feeling well and it was there that Soriano raped her.
Justice Marlene Carter shared excerpts from the victim impact statement and shared that she had become suicidal as a result of the rape and could no longer trust anyone. The defendant claimed the sex was consensual and has not shown any remorse or empathy.
The court accepted that it was an “opportunistic rape” because he had not made any previous unwanted advances to the victim.
The incident was opportunistic, said Justice Carter, in that there is no evidence that the defendant had planned to force himself on the complainant and had not previously made unwanted advances.
The starting point for a rape sentence, she said, was 10-12 years in the absence of aggravating and mitigating circumstances. In this case, she said, the mitigation outweighed the aggravation. He had no previous convictions and was seen as a hardworking man here to support his family.
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