By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
A FORMER hotel worker accused of raping an American tourist was acquitted in the St. James Circuit Court last Tuesday.
A seven-member jury, four of them women, deliberated for just about an hour-and-a-half before returning the not guilty verdict in favour of Wayne Shaw of Piggott Street, Mt. Salem, St. James.
It was alleged that Shaw, who was a bellhop at the hotel where the complainant and her friends were staying, had been invited to the American's room one afternoon after her friends had gone shopping.
It was alleged that while he was there he had sex with her without her consent and was caught by her friends, who had returned early.
The hotel manager was advised and the bellhop was subsequently arrested and charged after the police were called in.
Shaw, who was represented by attorney-at-law George Thomas, insisted that he and the American had consensual sex.
The prosecution was led by Crown Counsel Gayle Walters while High Court judge Hazel Harris presided.
