A man has been sentenced to five years in prison after a jury unanimously found him guilty of sexually assaulting his 13-year-old cousin while purportedly driving her to school.
According to Antigua News Room, the sentence was handed down yesterday, following a unanimous guilty verdict returned in February. The man was convicted on charges of serious indecency and indecent assault, receiving five years for the primary offence and one year for the lesser charge. Both sentences will run concurrently.
The assault occurred on October 26, 2022. Prosecutors told the court that the accused diverted from the route to school, taking the girl to a remote dirt road near a stadium where the attack took place. Evidence presented during the trial indicated that the teenager was forced and coerced into sexual acts and subjected to inappropriate touching.
In his defence, the man made an unsworn statement in which he acknowledged picking up the girl but maintained that he dropped her at school before spending the remainder of the day with relatives. The jury rejected his account, returning guilty verdicts after approximately 90 minutes of deliberations.
