A justice campaigner and a former Attorney General have both questioned why Rhiana Moore's murderer was not charged with killing their unborn child and having unlawful carnal knowledge of the teenager.

Ze Selassie, 33, stabbed his 14-year-old girlfriend to death in May last year. She was around seven months pregnant with his child and may have been as young as 13 when Selassie got her pregnant. Bermuda's age of consent for sex is 16.

On Thursday he was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of the premeditated murder of Rhiana.

Dr. Carol Shuman, a prominent campaigner for justice in the unsolved case of raped and murdered Canadian teenager Rebecca Middleton, believes Bermuda's law-enforcers do not investigate or bring charges over sexual crimes often enough.

She wished Selassie had faced a total of three charges, telling The Royal Gazette: "Based on the DNA expert's report, there is no reasonable doubt that Selassie is the father of Rhiana's baby girl. Why have there been no charges of statutory rape?"

Dr. Shuman pointed to a section of Bermuda's criminal code stating that anyone who prevents the delivery of a child being born alive "by any act or omission of such a nature that if the child had been born alive and had then died he would be deemed to have unlawfully killed the child" is guilty of a felony. The maximum sentence is ten years.

She said: "There is a reasonable expectation that a foetus delivered at seven months would survive. These factors, again, support my concern that Bermuda must move into the 21st century in its dealing with sexual crimes."

And she added: "Children under 16 have not developed abstract thinking concepts, required to make adult decisions. Thus Bermuda, very appropriately, has a law making sex with persons under that age illegal."

Asked about Dr. Shuman's concerns, Cindy Clarke, the lead prosecutor in the case said: "In relation to why there were no additional charges of unlawful carnal knowledge and child destruction I say this: it is solely within the discretion of the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide which offences are prosecuted. The department takes that responsibility seriously.

"In relation to this case, the decision not to prosecute the defendant for UCK and child destruction was properly researched and deliberated.

"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. Also to charge child destruction in this case would be duplicitous."

Selassie was sentenced to life for Rhiana's premeditated murder and the Chief Justice will hear the lawyers for the prosecution and defence at a later date on how long he should serve before being considered for parole. Legislation sets this at 25 years but a recent appeal judgement has cast a question mark over the issue of sentencing murderers.

Dr. Shuman believes if Selassie had been charged and convicted over the additional crimes she suggests, he could have been given an even longer jail term.

But Ms Clarke said: "To comment on Dr. Shuman's remarks, she is incorrect.

"Even if Selassie had been charged and convicted of unlawful carnal knowledge in addition to the premeditated murder, he could have received no higher sentence than life imprisonment.

"That being said, the court is still to hear submissions on the length of time Selassie has to be incarcerated before he can apply for parole.

"It is, and always has been my intention to submit that the death of Baby Moore, and the unlawful carnal knowledge of Rhiana Moore, a girl under 14, are amongst the aggravating features that should be considered in this case."

However, Dr. Shuman said in her view: "Statistics from the Women's Resource Centre, along with my reviews of Police and judicial handling of sexual crimes, in my opinion, demonstrate all too often Bermuda continues to fail to recognise victim's rights in sexual crimes.

"Failing to file charges that a jury should consider sends a message, just like I believe it did in the Rebecca Middleton case, that rape is not a serious matter, and that the perpetrator has been granted a 'legal pass'.

"I believe the most significant part of the problem is lack of education of Police and judiciary regarding sexual crimes and human rights.

"I don't believe anyone in Bermuda would knowingly tolerate violent acts, or sexual criminal behaviour. However, it is up to Police, prosecutors and legislators to thoroughly manage the law together, with the help of the public."

Dr. Shuman, who is from the US, said she hopes that Bermuda will revisit the law in order to make murdering an unborn baby a crime as it is in some states in the US.

However, she argued that even at present: "With Bermuda's felony law and potential for a ten-year prison sentence in the death of a potentially viable foetus, and the DNA evidence from Rhiana's baby, and a statutory rape law, it appears that Selassie was not charged for what Bermuda law defines as two additional crimes.

"Although the law making responsibility for fetal death a felony appears to be in place, I would add that I believe that Bermuda should revisit the law to determine whether the scale of gravity meets current standards of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, to which Bermuda and England are responsible."

Former Attorney General Phil Perinchief agreed with Dr. Shuman.

"Selassie ought to have been charged as well with serious sexual assault (statutory rape) and infanticide (the unlawful killing of an infant) as the evidence, forensic and otherwise, certainly supports such charges," he said.

"I do find that the prosecution appear all too often to singularly charge when on the face of it, it appears there are further 'included' — and therefore multiple — charges on the evidence."