Family of US student who broke Cayman Islands quarantine urge her release from prison

Skylar Mack broke the territory's strict quarantine laws

Coronavirus Article Bar with counter

A US college student has been jailed for four months in the Cayman Islands after she broke quarantine regulations to watch her boyfriend take part in a jet ski competition.

Skylar Mack, 18, pleaded guilty to breaching a 14-day isolation requirement for visitors to the British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. Jeanne Mack, her grandmother, said: "She knows she screwed up. She cries, she wants to come home.

"She knows she made a mistake, she owns to up to that, but she’s pretty hysterical right now." Ms Mack, a medical student at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia, was staying with Vanjae Ramgeet, 24, her boyfriend, a Cayman islands resident and professional jet ski racer.

The student said she had tested negative for the coronavirus before leaving the US, and after arriving in the Cayman Islands.

As part of the quarantine restrictions she was given an electronic tracking device to monitor her movements.

Two days into her stay she abandoned it and went to see the jet ski competition, where she spent seven hours, according to police.

She and Ramgeet both pleaded guilty to violating the quarantine requirements and were initially sentenced to 40 hours of community service, and a fine of $2,600.

However, prosecutors appealed, arguing the sentence was not harsh enough, and they were then jailed.

The judge, Justice Roger Chapple, said: "This was as flagrant a breach as could be imagined. It was born of selfishness and arrogance."

He added: "The gravity of the breach was such that the only appropriate sentence would have been one of immediate imprisonment."

The Cayman Islands has had just over 300 cases of coronavirus, and two deaths, during the pandemic.

It has brought in strict regulations to keep the level of cases low.