Family of US student imprisoned for breaching Cayman Islands lockdown asks for White House help

A judge on the British Caribbean territory said imprisonment was ‘the only appropriate sentence’

The family of an American college student imprisoned for breaching lockdown measures in the Cayman Islands, has appealed for help from the White House.

In an interview with NBC’s Today programme on Monday, 18 year-old Skylar Mack’s grandmother said she had written to US president Donald Trump and the White House on the matter.

"She just wants to come home," Miss Mack's grandmother, Jeanne Mack, told Today. "She knows she made a mistake, she owns to up to that, but she's pretty hysterical right now."

The grandmother said she received correspondence on the matter, having appealed for her release, and that the White House had forwarded her appeal to an “appropriate” federal agency - most probably the US State Department.

The teenager was sentenced to four months imprisonment in the Cayman Islands last week, having pleaded guilty to breaking a 14-day isolation period required of all visitors last month.

Her 24 year-old boyfriend who she had broken the rules to meet, Vanjae Ramgeet, was also sentenced.

Mr Ramgeet, a Cayman Islands resident, was taking part in a water sports competition when the breach happened on 29 November, the Cayman Compass reported.

According to authorities on the Carribean British Territory, Miss Mack breached coronavirus measures two days after she arrived, having requested a looser tracking wristband the day before the breach, a Cayman Island court said.

“The gravity of the breach was such that the only appropriate sentence would have been one of immediate imprisonment,” judge Roger Chapple said on the decision.

He had overturned a previous sentence of 40 hours of community service and a $2,600 (£1,947) fine each, after reconsidering the case, amid anger among Cayman Islanders.

A Cayman Islands court is due to hear the pair’s appeal on Tuesday, according to NBC News.

It was not clear whether the US State Department had been in touch with Cayman Islands authorities.