A 31-year-old man of Imbamadai, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) has been found not guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl by the Essequibo Sexual Offences Court.
Karl Robinson, a miner, was accused of engaging in sexual penetration with the minor on March 25, 2017, in Essequibo. He had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The prosecution led by State Counsel Tiffini Lyken contended that at around 10:00h on the day in question, the girl was at home when Robinson, who was 27, held her hand and walked her to a bushy area that was close to her home.
While there, the prosecution said that the man took off the girl’s tights and underwear, pulled down his pants, placed the girl to lie in some bushes, and then raped her. After allegedly committing the act, he told her not to tell anyone.
But according to the prosecutor, six days later, the girl confided in one of her classmates, who in turn, reported the matter to the school’s headteacher. The school teacher took the girl to the Health Post before filing a complaint with the Police.
In his defence, Robinson had denied raping the child. He told the court that he was in the interior at the time the alleged rape occurred. The girl’s mother, friend, and headteacher were among the witnesses who testified for the prosecution.
In her Police statement, the mother said that her daughter never informed her that she was raped. The mother also said that the man, whom her daughter alleged raped her, could not have committed the act as he was not in the jurisdiction.
As such, the mother wrote in her statement that her daughter is “not telling the truth”. Robinson was on trial before Justice Jo Ann Barlow.
