A week ago a jury convicted 37-year-old Raul Anthony Rivero of raping a ten-year-old girl in a pit latrine – and today Justice Herbert Lord sentenced him to 20 years in jail. The rape occurred on August 6th of 2005 in Cayo. At the ten year girl’s mother was at work and her dad was sick in bed. The girl got up to use the bathroom when Rivero – who apparently was lay waiting her – grabbed her. He pulled her into the pit latrine where he tied her hands with a rope attached to the latrine and raped her. A jury convicted Raul Rivero of unlawful carnal knowledge on Monday February 18th. He was undefended at trial and his defense was that he was somewhere else at the time.
This morning at sentencing he made no apologies - and instead of asking for leniency – he protested his innocence – and vowed to appeal. Justice Lord says he imposed the harsh sentence because the crime was premeditated. Rivero’s 16 previous convictions also factored into the sentence. His sentencing was originally scheduled for Monday but it was pushed back to today to allow him time to contact character witnesses. He still hadn’t reach those witnesses when court opened today.
