Life imprisonment for 9-y-o Nikita Noel's killer

WESTERN BUREAU: Omar Green, the man who pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of nine-year-old Nikita Noel in February this year, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Green received the sentence from presiding High Court Justice Courtney Daye when he appeared in the Hanover Circuit Court today.

He had pleaded guilty on July 11.

Justice Daye ordered that Green should serve 50 years and seven months before being eligible for parole on the murder charge, and 43 years and seven months before being eligible for parole on the rape charge. The sentences are to run concurrently.

In his summation, Daye noted that one of the aggravating factors that influenced the sentencing decision was the violation of trust between Nikita and Green, who had been in a tumultuous relationship with the child's mother.

"She (Nikita) was a child of tender years, and he (Green) is an adult and a responsible man. He was not a stranger, and he breached that trust," said Daye.

Nikita was reported missing by her mother on February 1 after she did not return home from classes at Esher Primary School, where she was a student.

A search was launched and the child's body was later discovered in bushes near her home in Kew district, Hanover. A subsequent post-mortem examination revealed that she had been raped and strangled.

Green was later taken into custody following police investigations.

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