By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
A JURY is scheduled to return today for the continuation of Andre Birbal’s unnatural sex case before Supreme Court.
The nine-member jury was excused by Justice Roy Jones yesterday, three days into the trial, after the prosecution closed its case and Birbal’s attorney requested to make a “certain” legal submission in their absence.
The judge excused the jury until 11am Friday (today) when submissions and a response from the Crown are expected to be completed.
Birbal, a 48-year-old former arts and computer design instructor at Eight Mile Rock High School, is alleged to have sexually assaulted a student of his between January 2002 and June 2007.
The complainant, according to law, could not have given consent at the time of the alleged offences.
Birbal, on Monday, sought an indefinite stay on the matter when he filed a constitutional motion, his third since the matter was sent back for retrial by the Court of Appeal.
However, Justice Jones dismissed the motion that the case could not be fairly tried and the second retrial commenced on Tuesday.
The virtual complainant recollected the alleged sexual abuse from Birbal from the seventh grade up to the day he graduated.
However, Birbal’s attorney, Romona Farquharson-Seymour, suggested to the complainant that Birbal never sexually assaulted him and the accusations only came about when Birbal had told him to move on with his life.
The complainant disagreed.
Darell Taylor and Charles Newbold are prosecuting the case.
Mrs Farquharson-Seymour is assisted by Candice Hepburn.
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