By DENISE MAYCOCK
Tribune Freeport Reporter
dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
A FATHER accused of sexually molesting his daughter was convicted of incest on Tuesday in the Supreme Court after jurors returned guilty verdicts on all five counts.
A jury of seven women and two men deliberated for nearly three hours before delivering a majority 9-0 guilty verdict on each count.
Justice Petra Adderley thanked the jurors for their service and adjourned the matter to June 11 for sentencing, when a probation report on the defendant will be presented.
The father, who had been on bail during the trial, showed no emotion as he was handcuffed and led away by officers.
Prosecutors alleged that the father engaged in unlawful sexual intercourse with his daughter between 2015 and 2019, beginning when she was just ten years old, and until aged 14.
The now 19-year-old complainant testified that she initially kept the abuse a secret out of fear. However, by age 15, it became too much bear and she began experiencing nightmares, and in March 2021, she confided in her mother by allowing her to read a journal where she had written what happened to her.
She later turned over the journal and her cellphone — containing alleged voice recordings of her father — to police. However, neither item could be located initially.
According to evidence presented in court, the father allegedly performed various sex acts on his daughter and forced her to do the same. The incidents reportedly occurred in Abaco when the father visited her and in Freeport when she and her brothers spent summers with him.
The prosecution alleged that the offences occurred between September 1 and September 30, 2015, in Murphy Town, Abaco, when the victim was ten. Between February 1 and February 29, 2016, when she was ten; between December 1 and December 31, 2016, when she was 11; between June 1 and June 30, 2018, when she was 12; and between July 1 and July 31, 2019, when she was 14.
Justice Adderley, in her summation, explained that under Section 13(1) of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act, any person who knows that another person is by blood relationship his or her parent, child, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, uncle, niece, aunt or nephew, as the case may be, has unlawful sexual intercourse with that other person, whether with or without the consent of that other person, is guilty of the offence of incest and liable to imprisonment.
According to the section, if he is an adult who commits the offence with a minor, he would be liable to life imprisonment.
The judge reminded jurors that the burden of proof rested entirely on the prosecution, which had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offences.
She also noted that the defendant, through his attorney, denied the allegations and chose not to testify.
“He does not have to prove anything,” she said, emphasising that his silence should not be taken as an admission of guilt.
Justice Adderley instructed jurors that if they were not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt, they must acquit him.
However, if they were convinced, they could convict him with a majority verdict of 6-3, 7-2, 8-1, or 9-0. If at least four jurors voted not guilty, he would have been acquitted.
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