10th April 2022
Barbados - Duo slapped with 31-year prison sentence for burglary that left visitor a paraplegic
By Barbados Today
Declaring that she had to impose a punishment severe enough to deter people from crimes against tourists, a High Court judge sentenced two men to 31 years in jail for a “horrific” 2020 home invasion that altered the life of Canadian visitor Kenneth Elliot.
But Travis Orin Campbell and Alexander Patrick Alleyne will only spend a further 18 years, 212 days behind bars, after several deductions were made including the time they had spent on remand and the one-third discount for their early guilty pleas.
“Any punishment . . . must be such that it strongly deters persons from contemplating and taking part in such crime. As a court, the sentences we impose must be so severe as to deter would-be perpetrators from targeting our locals and foreign tourists,” Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell said on Friday as she handed down sentences on Campbell, of no fixed place of abode and Alleyne, of Ealing Grove Gardens, Christ Church, on Friday.
Elliot and his partner Linda Brooks, his brother Robert, and sister-in-law Mary, all retirees, were vacationing at a Christ Church residence when the two masked men stormed the property, armed with a firearm and cutlass, on February 22, 2020.
During the burglary, Campbell shot Elliot in the upper body. The Canadian is now a wheelchair-bound paraplegic and needs round-the-clock assistance from family and health professionals.
The crime also took a mental and financial toll on his family.
“This case is one of those awful situations where the court has to create a balancing act to find justice for all of the persons involved in this case – the complainants, the convicted men and the Barbadian society.
“The complainant, his spouse, his brother and sister-in-law came to Barbados on vacation. While enjoying what they thought was the start of a relaxing, enjoyable and fun-filled vacation, they had visited upon them one of the more horrific, life-altering situations one can encounter barring death, by the actions of the two now-convicted men,” Justice Smith-Bovell said in handing down the ruling in the No 4 Supreme Court as the family of the convicts looked on.
The judge explained that Barbados is marketed as an idyllic tourist destination and advertised as generally a safe place where crime against tourists is relatively low.
Tourism, she pointed out, was the mainstay of the Barbadian economy with the island’s primary source markets being the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
Pointing to figures from the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, she said that in 2019, Barbados hosted some 85 868 Canadian visitors who spent over $155 million. In 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country welcomed approximately 180 668 non-stay visitors, 28 244 of whom were Canadians.
Those figures, Justice Smith-Bovell said, said showed that Canadian tourists contributed quite significantly to the island’s economy.
“Hence, any actions by perpetrators which will negatively impact our tourism market, [and] affect the . . . Barbados economy as a whole . . . must be dealt with harshly to deter any potential offenders . . .
“This is not to say that tourism crime is more important than crime [committed against locals] but it is to take into account that tourism crime has far-reaching consequences economically on Barbados,” she said.
The judge said the crimes of aggravated burglary and wounding with intent committed by Campbell and Alleyne needed an objective starting point of 30 years in prison while the use of firearm crime deserved the maximum sentence of 15 years.
The starting sentences, however, increased by three years when the court took into account the aggravating circumstances of the crime, including that the attack was premeditated and deliberate; both men made the conscious decision to be armed with a firearm and a cutlass; the use of force used as one of the victims was shot; the fact that the gun was never recovered; the impact on the Elliot family and “the fact that Kenneth Elliott indicated that he considered that his current state was worse than death”.
That time was then reduced by two years after the mitigating factors of the young offenders were taken into consideration, bringing the sentence to 31 years.
The one-third discount was then credited for their guilty pleas and the 761 days spent on remand were deducted, leaving the convicts with 6782 days or 18 years, 212 days on each count of aggravated burglary and wounding with intent. For using a firearm they were sentenced to 2 889 days or seven years, 334 days. All the sentences will run concurrently.
“Both convicts shall enroll in any available educational skills or vocational programmes to allow them to acquire a skill which could assist with their rehabilitation and their ability to gain employment on the completion of their sentence,” the judge added.
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