The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN convicted of incest with his 15-year-old daughter was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment yesterday.

The man had initially been handed a 30-year-sentence by Justice Indra Charles.

However, upon further considering case rulings by higher courts in similar matters, the judge lowered her initial sentence by five years.

The judge said the sentence would run from the date of conviction, February 12, 2014.

A Supreme Court jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict yesterday against the man standing trial accused of molesting his daughter ten times in the last two months of 2010.

The case closed after Justice Charles summed up the evidence in the three-day trial before excusing the jury to deliberate on a verdict concerning the November-December 2010 sexual assaults.

The teenager, now an adult, told a nine-member jury that her father had “grinded” her some te times. Armed with a knife, she said, he threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone.

The man denied the incest charges. His lawyer, Devard Williams, suggested to the daughter that she was making up the complaints because she was a troubled girl who was “fast” and had a boyfriend of her own.

The complainant denied fabricating the complaints. She said her father, who reportedly owned up to what he had done, tried to get her to drop the case through his lawyer, who had called her after charges had been brought against him.

Terry Archer prosecuted the case.