DEREK ACHONG
A 35-year-old man from Point Fortin has been acquitted of raping his sister's 12-year-old stepdaughter.
The man, whose identity was withheld based on the outcome and to protect the alleged victim, was found not guilty of sexual intercourse with a minor (statutory rape) and indecent assault at the end of his second trial before High Court Judge Tricia Hudlin-Cooper and a nine-member jury on Tuesday.
The man was charged after the girl claimed that she was attacked at her home, which she shared with her father and stepmother in July 2009.
The man, who was 20 years old at the time, went on trial in 2019.
However, the trial ended in a hung jury with six jurors finding him guilty and three voting to acquit.
During his recent and brief retrial before Justice Hudlin-Cooper, prosecutors led the evidence of two witnesses—the alleged victim, who is now an adult, and the woman police constable (WPC), who investigated the report and charged him.
The man, who denied attacking the child, testified in his defence and was supported by his sister.
Through cross-examination, his defence attorney, Tamara Gregorio challenged the strength of the investigation conducted by the WPC.
She pointed out that the officer did not collect evidence from the child's house and did not search the man's house after his arrest. The officer also claimed that her diary, which contained notes of her investigation, was lost in a flood.
The jury took three hours to deliberate on the evidence and decide on verdicts for the man.
The man received a majority verdict on the statutory rape charge, with one of the nine jurors disagreeing with their fellow jurors about his guilt. The jurors unanimously found him not guilty of the indecent assault charge.
