August's headlines were dominated by the trial and conviction of Ze Selassie for the brutal murder of schoolgirl Rhiana Moore.

The 14-year-old victim was pregnant with 33-year-old Selassie's baby when he stabbed her multiple times then dumped her body in the sea in May 2008.

A Supreme Court jury found him guilty by a unanimous verdict on August 20 after a two-week trial.

Addressing Selassie afterwards, Chief Justice Richard Ground said: "This was a callous and exceptionally brutal murder of a 14-year-old girl whom you had debauched sexually and who was pregnant with your child.

"There are no words that can express the depravity of your conduct. I give my deepest sympathies to the mother and family of the victim.

"Nothing can ever restore their loss, but the jury's verdict at least means that there will be some retribution."

At a later hearing he ordered that the killer must spend at last 35 years in prison before he can be considered for release.

Selassie, a construction site supervisor with a girlfriend and young son, had previously been convicted of rape ten years before.

During his murder trial, he admitted that he and Rhiana engaged in a secret and illegal sexual relationship.

He also admitted that he met Rhiana after she left her church youth group around 9.20 p.m. on May 30 2008 — the night she was last seen alive.

Her semi-clothed body was found in the water at Blue Hole Hill nature reserve in Hamilton Parish the following morning. She'd been stabbed 18 times in the head, neck, chest, back and stomach and was 27-30 weeks' pregnant with Selassie's baby girl.

Selassie denied murder and insisted he had taken Rhiana home safely.

However, prosecutors believe he killed her to get rid of her and their unborn child, to save himself from their illegal relationship being discovered.

Speaking after the case, the victim's grandmother Brenda Wainwright said 35 years in jail is not enough for him and "they should bring back hanging".

It also emerged after the case that legislation allowing the public to seek information about sex offenders in the community had lain dormant since being passed eight years before.

Attorney General Kim Wilson confirmed that dangerous offenders had been obliged to inform the Police of their whereabouts after their release since the legislation was passed in October, 2001.

However, she said that there had been no cases in which that information was made public and the community did not have an automatic right to be notified of dangerous convicts as in some US states under "Megan's Law".

The news caused Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz to dismiss the current measures as a "secret" sex offenders' register and call for the "ridiculous" law to be reviewed so the public could be told about dangerous offenders.

The Selassie case also prompted justice campaigner Carol Shuman and former Attorney General Phil Perinchief to question why the killer was not further charged with murdering his victim's unborn child and having unlawful carnal knowledge of her.

Prosecutor Cindy Clarke responded by saying that the decision not to do so was "properly researched and deliberated" and that "in the end, it should be said that there is no more severe penalty than life imprisonment, and no sentence can run consecutive to a life sentence."