Man convicted of sex charge
Published:Wednesday | January 27, 2010 | 12:00 AM
A 43-year-old man who was charged with sexually molesting an underage girl was found guilty in the St Catherine Circuit Court last week on two counts of indecent assault.
The jury of five women and two men retired for one hour and 10 minutes and returned a guilty verdict.
Evidence outlined in court was that in August 2007, the accused, who is separated from the complainant's mother, went to the mother's home and offered to bathe the teenager.
However, the man took the 13-year-old into bushes and accused her of performing sexual favours for other men, and insisted she do the same for him.
He subsequently forced the child to perform oral sex on him.
The teenager reported the ordeal to her mother in November, almost two months after it occurred. However, the accused was not arrested until February the following year.
The accused has been remanded until Friday when he will be sentenced.
High Court judge, Justice Bertram Morrison, presided over the matter.
Resident Magistrate Marcia Dunbar-Green recently expressed concern about the high level of sexual offences in St Catherine. Of the more than 50 cases before the current sitting of the St Catherine Circuit Court, 32 relate to sex offences.