Guyanese father in Antigua gets 20 years for raping daughter

Feb 17, 2009 News

– said she wanted sperm for school assignment

“Take your SBA and leave,” were the last words that Ivor Bowman heard before he was led away to a waiting bus to be transported to Her Majesty’s Prison, where he will spend the next 20 years.

The judge, in pointing out SBA or school based assessment, was referring to a school project which the father alleged required his sperm for his daughter to complete.

Bowman was, over two weeks ago, found guilty on five counts of rape and one count of serious indecency, offences he committed against his 13-year-old daughter.

The 49-year-old Upper Fort Road man appeared in the High Court of Justice last Friday, where Justice Errol Thomas, before passing sentence, bemoaned his actions.

Thomas sentenced the Guyanese man to 16 concurrent years on each count of rape, and four years on the serious indecency offence. That sentence, however, will run consecutively with the 16-year sentence, making it 20 years he is to spend behind bars.

Bowman reportedly had sexual intercourse with his daughter when she was 13, and the sexual encounters continued up until she was 16 years.

The Guyanese man is alleged to have committed the sexual offences between October 1, 2004, and March 16, 2006. During the last act, the father is alleged to have ejaculated on his daughter’s back, and she reportedly used a piece of toilet paper to wipe off the body fluid.

She told a neighbour, who in turn notified the police of the incident that same day.
The police visited the scene, and the teenager handed over to them the toilet tissue with her father’s semen.
The young lady, now 18 years old, said her father would force her to have sex with him, and added that if she refused he would threaten to beat her to a pulp.

Bowman told the court that his daughter told him that she needed sperm for a school based assessment (SBA) that she was doing on HIV and pregnancy. The father said he went to the bathroom, masturbated and ejaculated in the tissue and gave it to his daughter.

The Guyanese man said his daughter was lying, and added that every time he disciplines her she would tell him that he is “vex because he not getting sex from her.”

Bowman’s lawyer, John Fuller, admitted that the case is rather distasteful and that the acts were despicable and warranted a severe sentence.

Fuller said that he is aware that these types of offences are prevalent in today’s society.
“It is important that the message goes out that the court does not tolerate these types of crime…but it is my duty to attempt to soften the hands of justice in respect to sentencing.

Fuller said that Bowman has never been in trouble, and added that he maintains his innocence.
While Justice Thomas was addressing the 49-year-old man, the father shook his head in disbelief at the judge’s comments.

However, the judge told him, “Don’t’ try that. Just stay and listen to what I have to say.
“You hid behind her (his daughter’s) academic performance. That was a lame excuse; about you giving her sperm for SBA project. That has to be the joke of the century,” Justice Thomas told Bowman.

The judge told the father that he has left his daughter with psychological scars, something that she will never live down.

“Until the matter was reported to the police, other people knew (what was happening) and they should be there with you.

“Someday she is going to get married. Is she going to tell her husband? That is what you have left her with.”
The teenager was sent from Guyana to live with Bowman, her biological father, because her mother was going to take an operation and could not take care of her.
The case was prosecuted by Joanne Walsh. (From the Antigua Sun)