Court hears lawyers’ submission in eight-year-old case

Lawyers for the prosecution and defence have urged a jury to rule in their respective favours based on the evidence in an indecent assault case.

The submissions were part of closing arguments by the two sides when the trial of St James resident Korey Jason Omar Bryant continued before the High court today.

Bryant is on trial before Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell and a nine-member jury charged with indecently assaulting a teenage girl on December 18, 2013.

He has pleaded not guilty in the matter.

Before the No. 4 Supreme Court today Principal Crown Counsel Krystal Delaney, who is prosecuting the matter along with Crown Counsel Kevin Forde, urged the jury to look at all the evidence in the matter including that the accused took the opportunity to feel the girl’s vagina on that day and asked her ‘what’s all of that’. The prosecutor also submitted that the evidence showed the accused had “little respect” for females or the 16-year-old child.

She also urged the jury to take a close look at Bryant’s unsworn statement.

The Principal Crown Counsel told the jurors that if they believed the evidence of the complainant that there was an assault and that assault was indecent then they should return with a guilty verdict following their deliberations.

But Bryant’s attorney Shadia Simpson in her closing arguments told the jury that her client had nothing to prove and that the burden was on the prosecution.

She maintained that when the evidence is considered in its totality the prosecution’s case was “riddled with inconsistencies” while her client’s was “consistent”.

“In light of all that has been said the only verdict you can bring back is a verdict of not guilty,” Simpson told the jurors who are set to deliberate on the evidence on Monday and render a verdict in the matter.

During the trial the No. 4 Supreme Court heard from the complainant that she, her sister and a male friend got a ride from the accused in a motor car. She said her sister sat in the front passenger seat, while she was in the middle in the back seat, with the male friend sitting next to her and some items on the seat.

The complainant explained that Bryant, who she knew from seeing him in the neighbourhood for some five years before the incident, made a stop along the way for her sister to collect something. It was at that time, she said, that the accused turned to his left and “grabbed at my vagina and asked me ‘what is all of that?’”

She told the court that she pushed away his hand but he grabbed at her a second time. She subsequently told her mother and sister what had happened and the matter was reported to the Holetown Police Station.

Bryant has denied the allegation.