A Hamilton man charged in the 2015 drowning death of a child in St. Lucia has pleaded guilty.

Sahab Jamshidi entered a guilty plea Tuesday to negligence causing death in the country's high court, almost two years after he was charged in the death of four-year-old T.J. Elibox.

Jamshidi had been celebrating his 34th birthday with friends at Bois Chadon beach on the south side of the Caribbean island on Feb 22, 2015 when the small boy drowned in choppy waters.

St. Lucia police alleged that Jamshidi took the boy — at the beach for a church picnic with his grandmother, who was cleaning fish 30 metres away — out on his kite board for a ride and that T.J. fell off and drowned.

But Jamshidi has always maintained that he was kitesurfing with friends when he noticed the small boy's head bobbing in the water, and that he screamed for help and joined a search party on the beach — sticking around to talk to police when their efforts failed.

The medical school graduate has been on the island ever since, though he was released from police custody early on with strict bail conditions that require him to live with a friend there.

Jamshidi's trial — which was delayed multiple times — began on Monday.

In 2015, legal advocates on the island described the justice system there as severely bottlenecked due to a shortage of judges and a lack of resources.

Dr. Stephen King, a local pathologist and co-founder of Remand Justice, a nonprofit agency lobbying for justice reform, told The Spectator in March 2015 that he recognizes there are certain perceptions of island justice.

"I think at the end of the day the process (here) is fair; it just takes too long, way too long," King said.

Hamilton friend Stephen Verbeek travelled to St. Lucia with another friend to be with Jamshidi for the trial.

Asked what led him to change his plea Tuesday, and whether a deal was made with the prosecution, Verbeek — acting as family spokesperson — said that the family declines to comment until the matter is finalized.

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"We wish to respect all parties involved," he said.

Jamshidi is scheduled to return to court Feb. 3 for sentencing.