By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

PROSECUTORS have called for a repeat child molester to face a 20-year prison term for having sex with a nine-year-old boy he lured to his home in September 2024.

Dwight Jason Bell, 58, appeared yesterday for a sentencing hearing for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor of the same sex before Justice Jeannine Weech Gomez.

Bell had sex with the underage boy at his home on Market Street and Laird Street on September 7, 2024, in New Providence.

The boy had been picking fruit with his siblings before being lured into the man’s home.

When the child’s mother found him in Bell’s yard after searching for him, he told her he had been molested.

Bell pleaded guilty to the charge last October.

Prosecutor Desiree Ferguson recommended a 20-year prison term for the convict.

Ms Ferguson noted that the accused had a prior child molestation conviction, with a previous victim aged five.

Bell was sentenced to nine years and five months in prison for the rape of the five-year-old boy on Christmas Day 2014.

Ms Ferguson noted that his latest offence took place shortly after his release from prison.

Ms Ferguson said Bell’s sentence should send a strong message and act as a deterrent to similar crimes. She added that children must be protected and that the convict took advantage of the complainant.

The prosecutor said Bell’s employer could not believe he was a child molester when told, given how he conducted himself at work.

Despite this, Ms Ferguson said the convict hung his head when he admitted the offence in police custody.

Ms Ferguson told the court that Bell told authorities that he had “a weakness for young boys”.

Justice Gomez remarked that if the convict had received proper psychiatric care while in prison for the first offence, he might not have returned before the court.

Ms Ferguson responded that she did not think it would have made a difference.

Defence attorney Nathan Smith said his client could receive psychiatric care during his latest prison term.

Mr Smith recommended a ten-year prison term.

Bell returns for sentencing on April 27.