Jury finds man indecently assaulted girlfriend’s niece

A 38-year-old man has been remanded to Dodds Prison after a jury found him guilty of indecently assaulting his girlfriend’s nine-year-old niece three years ago.

A jury of five women and four men in the No. 4A Supreme Court returned the unanimous verdict on Friday afternoon after deliberating for 55 minutes, convicting the man of indecently assaulting the minor on June 15, 2021.

A pre-sentence report was ordered for the St Michael man, represented by defence attorneys Simon Clarke, Dr Lenda Blackman and Ken Mason. Principal State Counsel Joyann Catwell was the prosecutor.

Justice Wanda Blair adjourned the matter until September 24.

Earlier this week, the complainant, now aged 12, told the court that her mother had dropped her over by her aunt and just after 7 p.m., she and her cousins had been sent to bed.

Later in the night, she heard the door open, felt her toes being pulled and saw that it was her aunt’s boyfriend as the light was on. He left as someone called him, but then returned to the room several more times and continued touching her, including her private parts. She pretended to be asleep to avoid getting into trouble, but when he sat on the bed and started touching her vagina she opened her eyes and moved and he left the room.

In an unsworn statement, the accused man swore on his “mother’s grave” that he never touched the girl sexually, telling the court he had checked on the children several times but they had not been asleep. On one of these occasions, he had pulled on the children’s toes and left the room before showering and going to bed.