A jury has found a man guilty of indecently assaulting a woman and attempting to choke her during a confrontation at her home in August 2022, according to Antigua News Room.
Jurors delivered the verdict this week after hearing two sharply conflicting accounts of the incident, which involved a 48-year-old complainant and the accused, who was 34 years old at the time.
The woman testified that the man entered her property uninvited while she was outside and refused to leave. She told the court that after she declined his requests for drinks and money, he touched her inappropriately and forced her into the kitchen, where he demanded sex. When she resisted, she said he grabbed her by the neck.
She managed to move him outside by asking him to turn off a washing machine, then locked the door. However, CCTV footage presented to the jury showed the man re-entering the house through the front door after reaching through the louvres to unlock it from outside.
The footage subsequently captured the woman fleeing the yard while calling for help, with the man following behind her. A neighbour who heard her cries went to the property, instructed the man to leave, and assisted the woman, who had fallen in the yard.
Taking the stand in his own defence, the accused claimed the two had arranged to meet for consensual sex in exchange for money, and that a dispute arose over where in the house the encounter would take place.
The jury rejected his account and returned guilty verdicts on both charges.
