Man charged with 8 sexual offences against his young daughters awaits sentencing

A man, who faced eight sexual offence charges, appeared at the High Court before Justice Brian Cottle on Friday May 10, 2024, where a nine member jury returned an undecided verdict on three of the eight charges he faced.

Three hours and 55 minutes of deliberation ended in a jury being undecided on some of the multiple sexual charges against a man involving his primary school aged daughters. He is accused of raping one of his daughters and attempted unlawful sexual intercourse with the other.

The man, who faced eight sexual offence charges, appeared at the High Court before Justice Brian Cottle on Friday May 10, 2024, where a nine member jury returned an undecided verdict on three of the eight charges he faced.

The defendant was charged with three counts of having unlawful sexual intercourse with his seven year old daughter, she being a girl who is under the age of 13.

He was also charged with three counts of attempting to have unlawful sexual intercourse with his other daughter, who was five years old at the time of the offence, she being a girl who is under the age of 13. In addition, he was charged with two counts of indecent assault against the five year old, she being a girl who is under the age of 15. All of the offences were committed between July 31, 2019, and September 1, 2021, in a community on the outskirts of Kingstown.

The judge’s summation of the Crown’s case is that the defendant’s seven year old daughter was in her room when her father called her to his bedroom. He told her to get on the bed, raped her and threatened to kill her if she told anyone. While, the defendant was raping his daughter, she was begging him to stop because he was hurting her. He sent her to her bedroom when he was finished.

On the second occasion, the child was in her own bed when her father approached her and raped her.

On the third occasion, he sent the child’s brother and sister out of his bedroom, then raised her dress and had sex with his daughter.

Regarding the younger sister, she said that her father took her clothes off and told her to suck his private member, that he tried to penetrate her, and threatened to kill her if she told her mother.

The offences were said to have been revealed during a conversation that the children were having with their aunt where they talked about “bad touch and good touch.” During the conversation, the elder of the two girls said that she received a “bad touch” from her father.

The aunt, who is a police officer, reported the matter to the police and both children recounted what had happened to them.

The Judge’s summation also revealed that the accused father who was represented by lawyer, Carl Williams denied having any sexual relations with his children. He said he believes that the aunt set him up out jealousy and envy, by influencing the children to fabricate this untruth about him. This was so that she can gain custody of the children and receive the benefits he was reaping from “Welfare” such as barrels of shoes, clothes, and bags when he had custody of the children.

He said as well that she now has custody of his children and is receiving these benefits.

The children’s mother, who resides in a different village than the children and their father, testified that she believes that their aunt is turning the children against her. The accused man told the court that when he learnt that his children were being raped, he told their aunt to take them to the doctor. He said that she left that part out from her evidence, because “she is a liar, and a liar has no memory…”. In the summation it was stated as well that the man also testified that he willingly went to the police station to be interviewed, and maintained his innocence from since then.

When the jury returned to the courtroom after deliberating for almost four hours, the foreman of the nine-member jury told Justice Cottle, that the jury had not settled on a verdict on three of the eight charges.

For the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse which was committed against the seven year old daughter, the foreman said that four jurors found the defendant guilty; four found him not guilty; and one was undecided. When asked if the jury would benefit from further discussions, the foreman responded, “It does not seem that way, my Lord”.

The jury was hung for the three counts of the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse against the older child. However, they returned guilty verdicts for the three counts of attempted unlawful sexual intercourse against the

five year daughter, with a ratio of 7:2; and guilty verdicts for the two indecent assault charges which were committed also against the five year old, with eight jurors finding him guilty, none finding him innocent, and one juror being undecided. The man remains on remand pending sentencing.