Fray

WESTERN BUREAU:

High Court Judge Sarah Thompson-James sent a strong message to would-be hijackers yesterday when she sentenced 22-year-old Stephen Fray to serve 20 years in prison.

In a ruling that has been tagged a 'public policy sentencing' by some of the country's lawyers, the judge handed down a harsh punishment of 83 years on Fray, who made headlines interna-tionally when he stormed past security at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay on Sunday, April 19, taking over a CanJet charter flight and holding its passengers aboard hostage for several hours.

Fray will, however, serve only 20 years at hard labour as the sentences of 20 years for three counts of shooting with intent and robbery with aggravation, 18 years for the illegal possession of a firearm, one year for assault of three persons and one year for shooting, as well as two other one-year sentences, will run concurrently.

Lawyer disappointed

He is likely to spend 12 years in prison on aggregate.

With the mark of disappointment evident on his face, Fray's lawyer George Thomas not only announced his intention to appeal the sentences, but said he believed the judge did not take all factors into consideration before handing them down.

"I wasn't expecting 20 years. I was expecting a situation where she would have taken into consideration that this was a sick man, as spoken by both psychiatrists and she would have looked at it that this man was under some delusion, and is still under some delusion and needed treatment," said Thomas.

He said the judge was propelled by the act as opposed to the fact that the young man was deluded into doing the act.

Other attorneys who have been watching the case carefully have said that the whole point of this matter was to send a message. "The case has far more diplomatic and international implications than if it was a Tinson Pen hijacking," said one of the legal minds.

Serious economic crime

The lawyer, who was not intimately involved in the case, said the incident was a serious economic crime that could have affected the country's most important growth market for tourism, Canada.

"So the sentencing has to have a deterrent component so no one can feel that it can happen again."

Fray's mother, Dawn, and sister, Dominique, wept outside the courthouse as did many sympathetic to the young man.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com