R v Cleon Carty

• Jurisdiction: Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Judgment Date: 30 October 2025
• Judgment citation (vLex): [2025] ECSC J1030-1
• Docket Number: SKBHCR2025/0043
• Court: High Court (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

Rex

and

Cleon Carty

[2025] ECSC J1030-1

SKBHCR2025/0043

IN THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN SUPREME COURT

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

(CRIMINAL JURISDICTION)

APPEARANCES

Ms Azuree Liburd for the Crown.

Mr Jason Hamilton for the defendant.

SENTENCE

For buggery of male aged 14

1 Cleon Carty aged 43 (dob 01.06.82) is to be sentenced for buggery on a date between 10 and 24.05.24 of X 1, a male aged 14. On 28.10.25, there was an application for a Goodyear indication of sentence, which on hearing argument and the relevant mitigation and materials, was assessed as 5 years imprisonment, and then Carty pleaded guilty. There has been no application for a social inquiry report in light of the full discussion about the sentence, it being accepted it will not mitigate further, and so the sentence will be passed today, 30.10.25, with the remarks reduced to writing owing to the sensitive nature of these proceedings, and to capture the challenges of this sentencing exercise.

2 Carty and X had known each other for a time, and on a date about a week prior to 24.05.24, X was sent by his mother to the supermarket, but took the opportunity to visit Carty, where Carty pressed his penis into the anus of X, who stood leaning against a table, the event lasting about 60 seconds, there having been similar activity on an earlier occasion, with X then going to the supermarket after to complete his errand. His mother was alerted to X having visited Carty, and after questioning him, took him to police on 24.05.24, whereupon he reported his activities. In interview, Carty denied sexual activity, though admitted he knew X and who had been to his premises.

3 The sexual activity was consensual, meaning with no force, though X being 14, his consent is vitiated by his being a minor, under 16. Carty is of good character.

4 Buggery, which is penetrating the anus with the penis, of a male or female, is an offence under s56 Offences against the Person Act, cap 4.21, passed in 1873, equating it with bestiality, describing it in Victorian language as ‘abominable’, implying its origin contrary to Common Law, and making its action illegal:

Sodomy and bestiality.

56. Any person who is convicted of the abominable crime of buggery, committed either with mankind or with any animal, shall be liable to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding ten years, with or without hard labour.

5 Of note, the maximum sentence is only 10 years, and the offence is irrespective of consent or age.

6 In a decision on 29.08.22 of Ward J, as he then was, in Jamal Jeffers v AG 2022 2, it was ruled unconstitutional for consensual buggery to be illegal between consenting adults.

7 The gravamen of the instant case is X being 14 his consent is vitiated, not being an adult, and so the sexual activity is illegal, akin to ‘unlawful carnal knowledge’ of a female, where, as intercourse, the penis is placed into the vagina of a female under 16, contrary to s4 Criminal Law Amendment Act cap 4.05. However, on St Kitts, such an offence on a female...