‘Vile monster’ jailed for 35 years for sexually abusing sisters
A “vile and cruel monster” who committed a series of sex acts on two young sisters has been jailed for 35 years.
Locksley Cummings will spend at least 17½ years behind bars before he is eligible for parole after being sentenced yesterday afternoon.
Cummings, 43, was found guilty of five counts of sexual exploitation after a Supreme Court trial in February. He had denied the charges.
The offences on the first victim took place between 2007 and 2009 when she was aged 8 or 9. The court heard how Cummings touched her sexually on one occasion and had intercourse with her on the second occasion.
Seven years later, Cummings began preying on the younger sister of the first victim, who was also a young girl at the time.
Between 2016 and 2021, Cummings had intercourse multiple times with his second victim, who was aged 9 when the attacks started. He also made his victim perform a sex act on him on one occasion.
The bulk of the incidents occurred at Cummings’s home.
Puisne Judge Shade Subair Williams sentenced Cummings to 17 years for two counts against the first victim, and 18 years for three counts against the second victim.
She explained that because the incidents had taken place over two separate periods of time, the sentences should run consecutively rather than concurrently.
Before sentencing, Mrs Justice Subair Williams said Cummings’s crimes were one of the worst non-death cases she had ever seen in Bermuda, and that he had put his victims through “a nightmare”.
Addressing Cummings, she said: ”You violated that little girl like only a monster could.
“To think that any person could be so vile and cruel. May you one day step away from your cowardly denial of these heinous crimes and address your demons. You will have to ask yourself the question, ‘Can I ever forgive myself?’”
One of Locksley Cummings’s victims spoke of her feelings of anger and betrayal during her five-year ordeal.
In a victim impact statement, the teenager, who was 7 when the abuse began, also revealed that she considered death by suicide as a result of the physical and emotional trauma she endured.
The statement read in part: “Betrayal is an understandably large understatement to what I had felt the first time he had sexual intercourse with me at the ripe age of 7.
“Of course, I was mature for my age, I didn’t cry a lot, I was pretty strong and thought pretty logically about things, so I knew right from wrong and I knew what he was doing was wrong.
“Regardless of the fact I had these traits from a young age, it doesn’t dismiss that I was still only a seven-year-old girl. I was pretty good at hiding what went on behind closed doors. I excelled at school, I was always smiling, did good in sports, etc.
“But when I was alone was when I felt the most sadness. When it was just me, the darkness and my thoughts was when anger, rage, frustration built up.
“During the times that he would be doing sexual things to me, it would hurt so much I would cry. I would wish everyone disappeared. I would even wish that I had disappeared, but after he would finish, I would go back to normal.
“From 7 to late 12, this would be continuing to the fact that I turned off my emotions and never felt anything about what he was doing to me, but turn my emotions towards something else.
“I would scream, throw things, rip paper — everything you could imagine, even threaten to kill myself and cut myself in front of my stepmom. I always wondered, ‘have I not made it obvious enough? Is everyone so oblivious?’
“I felt so alone. I felt abandoned by everyone, even when I had a lot of people who surrounded me. I felt I only had myself and myself was all I needed sometimes.
“Now at 13 going 14, this has impacted me not so greatly. I have dismissed this part of my life and rebirthed a new me that only looks towards the future and not look back at the past. I will never forget what he did to me; however, I will not let it affect me, either. I simply move on and leave what happened in the past.
“My emotions to things nowadays is a pretty nonchalant take, mostly because I just decided that’s the best way I had coped in the past and that’s the best way I cope now.
“Sometimes I can’t really understand what I’m feeling, but I still never talk about it. What happened to me simply made me aware of things that can be happening at other people’s home life. And now I’m in a better place.”
Mrs Justice Subair Williams added that there were a string of aggravating factors, including the age of both victims, the predatory nature of the attacks which took place repeatedly, and that the victims had suffered physical injuries at the hands of Cummings.
She noted that Cummings had shown no remorse, and that the only mitigating factor was that, while he did not have a clean criminal record, he had no previous convictions for sex offences.
Mrs Justice Subair Williams said she saw no reason to reduce the length of sentence which reflected “the gravity” of the offences, and that a strong deterrent message needed to be sent out to the community.
The judge said that, although criminals can usually apply for parole after serving one third of their sentence, Cummings must serve at least half before being eligible.
She ordered that, after his eventual release, Cummings must serve a ten-year supervision order so that young girls will be protected in the future. She noted that a risk assessment report had concluded that Cummings was “highly likely” to reoffend if given the opportunity.
Cummings remained emotionless throughout the 25-minute hearing.
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