NASSAU-Acid attack survivor Sterling Pratt has exposed the double standard in the court system in sentencing female criminals.
Minique Bowe-Wyles, 37, pleaded guilty to causing grievous harm to her then-boyfriend in a December 15, 1999 attack.
Pratt received a “life-sentence” when the acid burned 24 percent of his body, leaving permanent scars, during an argument.
However, Bowe-Wyles only received four months of probation for the horrific crime.
Pratt told Bahamas Court News that acid attackers should receive mandatory prison sentences.
But Bowe-Wyles isn’t the only woman who received little, or no punishment, for an acid attack.
In 2017, 64-year-old Robinette Thompson doused her husband, William, with acid during a domestic dispute on Labour Day.
Mr. Thompson sustained burns to 80 percent of his body. He died in hospital in September 2017.
Yet, prosecutors didn’t upgrade her attempted murder charge to murder.
She accepted a plea deal and received a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to causing dangerous harm in 2018.
Ms. Thompson thought the sentence was too severe and appealed.
However, she died in November 2019, before the Court of Appeal heard her arguments for a reduced sentence.
In 2015, D’nika Mackey threw acid on her lover’s wife, scarring her face and arm.
Mackey had an affair with the woman’s husband for one-third of his six-year marriage. Despite this, he went back to his wife.
Mackey waited outside the man’s home in Foxdale on December 13, 2015.
Then Mackey called out her lover as he walked past with his wife. She threw acid at her love-rival out of jealousy.
Mackey pleaded guilty and was placed on probation for one year. The court also ordered Mackey to pay $8,700 in compensation.
The prosecution appealed the lenient sentence, but the Court of Appeal did not disturb the decision.
In contrast, a magistrate jailed Christopher Rahming for three years after he pleaded guilty to throwing acid on a former girlfriend.
Rahming attacked Apollonia Lightfoot at a bus stop on John F Kennedy Drive on November 23, 2018.
