The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 13-year-old boy told a jury yesterday he was sexually assaulted by a man who forced him into a car in the street.

The boy said that he was walking down a street after leaving a local snack shop empty handed when he noticed a silver jeep stop in the middle of the road.

The teen boy said a man got out of the vehicle, picked him up and put him inside the jeep shortly before getting in the driver’s seat and pulling off.

The man drove him past Cable Beach, Goodman’s Bay and the police station until they arrived at a pink and white trim apartment complex.

The man took him inside, up the stairs to the bedroom and threw him across the bare mattress before sexually assaulting him.

As the court heard the testimony of the minor, the accused, 38-year-old Kohfe Goodman, sat in the prisoner’s dock behind his attorney Geoffrey Farquharson.

Goodman of Yorkshire Drive faces charges of kidnapping and unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, which he denies.
Prosecutors Garvin Gaskin, Darell Taylor and Kristan Stubbs alleged that the accused, on August 17, 2011, abducted a 12-year-old boy from Augusta Street and had sex with him.
Goodman denies the allegations.
In yesterday afternoon’s session of the trial, the complainant was called to the witness stand.
However, before this happened, Mr Farquharson rose to ask Senior Justice Jon Isaacs if his distressed client could have a five minute break for “personal reasons.”
The judge granted the request and adjourned court for five minutes. Following the break and Goodman’s return to the prisoner’s dock, the complainant was escorted into court by prosecutor Stubbs and the “watching brief” (attorney) Glendon Rolle.
The crying boy, shielded from sight by the prosecutor, the attorney and his sister, only made it as far as the cement pillar some 20 feet from the witness box.
Mr Farquharson again rose to his feet, this time asking for the jury to be excused until the boy could be composed enough to take the witness stand.
Another five minute break occurred and the boy returned to court, red-eyed but taking the witness stand nonetheless.
Mr Farquharson commented that the boy “seems extremely composed all of a sudden.”
The judge questioned the boy if he knew his purpose for coming to court and if he understood the difference between a lie and the truth.
After being satisfied that the complainant understood this, he was sworn in and then questioned by Mrs Taylor.
The testimony was interrupted seconds later by Goodman who called out to the judge.
“Your honour, you see this lady right here,” he said, pointing to the complainant’s sister, “she threatening me.”
Senior Justice Isaacs asked the two police officers stationed at opposite ends of the court if they heard of any such threats. Both officers said no.
“Your honour,” said Goodman, “she did this” illustrating a fingered-gun gesture to his head for the court’s viewing.
Mr Farquharson rose to his feet to address the judge on the matter but the judge asked for the Crown prosecutor to continue with her examination of the witness.
“Can you recall the 17th of August 2011?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” the boy answered from his seat.
“I went by ‘The Pit’ and went to order the food but the fryer wasn’t working,” the boy began.
“So I left and I was walking down the street and I saw this silver jeep stop in the middle of the road. Then the man picked me up and pull me in the car,” the boy told the court.
“He put me inside his jeep and he got inside and drive past Cable Beach. He passed Goodmans Bay beach and passed the police station. Then he pulled up to a pink and white apartment. He got out the car and slide the gate past,” the boy said.
“What if anything happened next?” prosecutor Taylor asked.
The boy said the man who abducted him drove the jeep to the back of the apartment before taking him out and walking him past four apartments to get to a unit near the gate.
“He aint use no key. He just open the door and the kitchen is on the left hand side and the stairs right in front of the door. He take me up the stairs to the bedroom, and no sheet was on the bed or anything,” the boy said.
Goodman, during the testimony, interacted with his attorney and at this point handed his attorney a folded yellow paper.
The 13-year-old boy continued his evidence when the prosecutor asked if anything happened when the man threw him on the bare mattress.
The boy then described the sex act in detail.

“Then he stop and he put me inside the tub and washed me off and dry me with a purple towel,” the boy added.
Referring back to his evidence of when the man pulled him into the car, prosecutor Taylor asked if the man said anything to him.
“He threaten me,” the boy answered.
“What, if anything, did he say to you?” the prosecutor asked.
“If I don’t do what he say, he ga kill me,” the child answered.
“So you were inside the jeep. What did you do?” the prosecutor asked.
“I tried to open the door to get out. The door couldn’t open from the outside,” the child said.
The trial resumes today at 10am.