Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A security guard has been acquitted of raping his lesbian colleague while she was intoxicated.
Malachi Nurse was found not guilty by a nine-member jury at the end of his trial before Justice Nalini Singh last Thursday.
The case against Nurse related to an alleged incident at a dormitory in Arima operated by the security company, which employed him and the alleged victim.
According to the evidence presented during the trial, Nurse went with the alleged victim, her then-girlfriend and a group of friends to lime at a nightclub in Arima. The alleged victim reportedly fought with her girlfriend while the group was walking back to the dormitory.
During the altercation, the alleged victim allegedly threw a clay brick at her girlfriend but missed.
She (the alleged victim) then gave Nurse and another member of the group money to go to a gas station to purchase a bottle of rum.
The group consumed the alcohol in a communal area of the dormitory before the alleged victim went to her room.
The alleged victim claimed that while she was sleeping, she felt someone removing her pants before lying on top of her and raping her.
She also admitted that she did not resist as she was in a state of shock.
She claimed that the room was dark and she could not recognise her attacker. However, she claimed that she briefly saw his face when he opened the door to leave the room.
State prosecutors claimed that when she woke up the following morning she messaged her girlfriend asking her what transpired hours earlier, as she woke up undressed.
Two hours later, she sent another message claiming that she had been raped by Nurse.
Nurse was arrested over a month after the alleged attack.
Nurse denied any wrongdoing in the trial through his lawyers, Michelle Ali and Kameika Peters, of the Public Defenders’ Department (PDD).
He claimed that the fight between the alleged victim and her girlfriend started after she (the alleged victim) saw him talking to her girlfriend.
He claimed that he left his cellphone in the alleged victim’s room and claimed that he went in briefly to retrieve it.
He contended that the alleged victim fabricated the claims against him after she saw her girlfriend in his room the following morning.
Nurse’s lawyers challenged CCTV footage which showed Nurse entering the room.
They claimed that the evidence was unreliable as the camera only captured motion frames. They noted that prosecutors did not present any images of Nurse leaving the room after the alleged attack.
They also noted that the doctor, who examined the alleged victim, did not find any evidence of assault.
They pointed out that while samples taken from the victim and her bed sheet were sent for DNA testing, the results were not presented at the trial, as the police investigator did not follow up with officials of the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
The jury deliberated over the evidence for almost two hours before returning with the unanimous not guilty verdict for Nurse.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was represented by Keston Abraham.
