A BUSINESSMAN has been given a three-year suspended sentence and his driver's licence suspended for three years, after pleading guilty in the Home Circuit Court to causing death by dangerous driving.
Peter Sasso, 40, of a Kingston address, was charged with manslaughter arising from the death of seven-year-old Ade-bayo Adoite, a student of Hagley Park Preparatory School, Kingston 11, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser offence.
The facts of the case were that on October 24, 2001, the boy was coming from school along the sidewalk on Hagley Park Road, Kingston 11, when he was hit by a car which was being driven by Sasso. The boy died as a result of a broken neck.
LETTER OF APOLOGY
After Sasso pleaded guilty to the charge on Monday, he read a letter to the deceased's parents who were in court. He apologised to them for causing the death of their child. He said he did not speak about the incident before because he was so "stricken by grief." He said in the letter that he knew what it was for a parent to lose a child, because he, too, had a son who died in his arms.
Attorney-at-law, Christopher Townsend, who represented Sasso, made an impassioned plea to the court for a non-custodial sentence.
Justice Courtenay Daye, in passing sentence, said Sasso seemed to be very contrite, but he must impose a sentence that would be a deterrent to others. Sasso was sentenced to two years imprisonment but the sentence was suspended for three years. If Sasso is convicted of another offence within the next three years, he will have to serve the two-year prison term. Sasso's licence was also revoked for three years.
