The tearful mother of a child, who was kidnapped as a baby five years ago, says she is “disgusted” by the two-year suspended sentence given to the woman who was held with her son. She had expected the woman to receive at least a 10-year sentence.
“I am really disgusted. I am happy I’ve reunited with my son, but the sentence was not what I had expected,” said Aaliah Wray, the 22-year-old mother of two.
Anneisha Ramsay, the woman who was found with the baby in January 2020, three months after the infant had been stolen, was yesterday given a two-year suspended sentence by Justice Leighton Pusey in the Home Circuit Court.
Ramsay, who appeared remorseful, last December pleaded guilty to child stealing, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years.
The then five-week-old baby, Nyyear Frank, was snatched while his mother was walking with him along Rousseau Road in St Andrew on the afternoon of October 13, 2019. The mother was reportedly forced into a vehicle with her baby by two men who later took the infant and kicked her out of the car.
The mother had gone to the location to meet a woman who had promised her some baby clothing. However, months later, on January 22, 2020, the baby was found in Ramsay’s care at her Flinch Crescent, Kingston 11 home after Wray received the intelligence and passed it on to the police.
The 26-year-old administrative assistant, however, has maintained that she had agreed to adopt the baby for $500,000 but did not know the infant had been stolen.
Ramsay also indicated that, before she became suspicious after seeing different stories online about the baby, she had told her friend several times to come back for the baby after encountering difficulties with the payment and the collection of documents for the infant. But she was told by her friend several times before he blocked her that the mother was not interested in taking back the baby.
Ramsay, in her caution statement, also said she had suffered a miscarriage and was going through depression when her friend offered to help her adopt a baby.
However, Wray, besides feeling extremely disappointed, said she was also now very fearful as she is convinced that Ramsay was the woman who had befriended her and lured her to the location where her baby was taken away.
“I don’t think she told them about the man who took me in the car, and I know that they’re still out there. I’m still scared for my life.
“Worse, I came to court today and she saw my face, she saw how I look now, and I feel scared that she’ll try something again or something like that,” said Wray, who said she has voice messages from the woman with whom she had spoken, and that she sounded just like Ramsay.
Wray said a friend had told her about the woman who wanted to give her some baby clothing and that she and the woman had been in constant contact.
“She gave me her Instagram where we texted on a daily basis, and she told me some stories about her. I gained her trust. She made me feel like she was someone I could trust, someone I could talk to about certain things. So she basically drew me in, she lured me in,” said Wray.
Earlier, in her victim impact statement which was read in court, Wray said the incident had taken a toll on her and she had fallen into depression.
“I cried several nights, lost sleep, lost my appetite, and even lost weight. Even though he is with me now, I am still traumatised because I am afraid to take him on the road, thinking that the same thing will happen again.
“I don’t even take taxis anymore, because I always have memories of the situation where I was kicked from the vehicle when my baby was stolen, and I don’t trust anyone apart from my family,” she said.
She said she is very protective of her son, who is doing well in school, and has deliberately enrolled him in a nearby school so she can make regular checks to ensure his safety.
Although he is doing fine, she said she believes he is traumatised based on how he flinches at times when people get close to him.
As for her, Wray said she is not fully recovered and still breaks down in tears from time to time.
“Even this morning, coming to court, I cried just seeing the woman who had my baby. Tears just flowed from my eyes. I just wanted one thing to happen: to ask her why she stole my baby, knowing that she lost a baby herself. I can’t forgive her, nor will I forget the pain I have been through for four months,” Wray shared.
Ramsay’s lawyer, Kayon Atkinson, had previously urged the judge to give her client a non-custodial sentence and to consider that she was not the person who had physically stolen the baby, that she had suffered a miscarriage, and was experiencing post-partum depression. Atkinson also argued that Ramsay had genuinely believed her friend that the mother was giving up the child willingly.
Pusey, in handing down the sentence, said, although the offence is serious and a clear message must be sent to society that it is unacceptable, he was of the view that a non-custodial sentence was fitting in this case.
Among his considerations was that there was no evidence that Ramsay was involved in the snatching of the child, her age, her good antecedents, and the inquiry report.
He said the court also took note of Ramsay’s painful circumstances but had to balance it with the pain and trauma suffered by the complainant.
“Most of the persons who are involved in this particular crime, or many of them, do so out of serious hurt and pain.
“I think that the caution statement shows her as being naïve, vulnerable, but also, unfortunately, willing to go through back channels. Something that, unfortunately, pains our society a lot,” the judge added.
However, he said he believed the suspended sentence with supervision was the best option.
In the meantime, he commended Wray for her consistency and determination in doing everything to get back her child, like most Jamaican mothers.
