(U.S. Virgin Islands)- V.I. Attorney General Denise George announces that Kenson Barley was sentenced in the Superior Court for Unlawful Sexual Contact in the First Degree stemming from his sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl in St. Croix in 2019. Barley received 10 years imprisonment for Unlawful Sexual Contact First Degree.
Virgin Islands Department of Justice prosecutors, Deputy Attorney General Eric Chancellor and Assistant Attorney General MacKeish Taylor proved to the jury that on the morning of February 16, 2019, the 9-year-old girl accompanied her grandfather to a store in Christiansted. She waited in her grandfather’s vehicle while he went into the store. Barley, a family acquaintance, approached the girl sitting in the vehicle. The girl testified at trial that Barley offered to let her pet his dog, which he retrieved from his vehicle.
While she petted the dog, Barley reached into the vehicle, groped her vagina, and propositioned her for sex. The girl did not immediately tell anyone what happened but later that evening she told her mother, who then reported the sexual assault to the police. A St. Croix Superior Court jury found Barley guilty of Unlawful Sexual Contact in the First Degree in January 2020. Barley is required under V.I. law to register as a sex offender.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 18, 2022
Sandra Goomansingh
Media Relations Director
(340)774-5666 ext. 10105
Email: Sandra.goomansingh@doj.vi.gov