Sascha Wil­son

A 43-year-old man, ac­cused of phys­i­cal­ly and ver­bal­ly as­sault­ing a nine-year-old boy in a video that sur­faced on­line, has been grant­ed bail set at $20,000 with sure­ty or $10,000 cash.

Ker­von Noel ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter Kim­i­tria Gray in the South Mas­ter Court A, charged with one count of cru­el­ty to a child. One of the con­di­tions of his bail is that he re­frain from any di­rect or in­di­rect con­tact with the child un­less au­tho­rised and su­per­vised by the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty.

He has al­so been or­dered to re­port to the Moru­ga Po­lice Sta­tion three times a week—Mon­days, Wednes­days, and Fri­days. The pros­e­cu­tion rec­om­mend­ed a sum­ma­ry tri­al, but Noel was not asked to en­ter a plea dur­ing the hear­ing.

Noel was ar­rest­ed on 11 Feb­ru­ary by of­fi­cers from the Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment, fol­low­ing the cir­cu­la­tion of a dis­turb­ing video show­ing a man phys­i­cal­ly abus­ing the boy and threat­en­ing him with a knife on the road at Marac Vil­lage, Moru­ga.

The video was record­ed by a res­i­dent the pre­vi­ous night. PC Kevin Craw­ford of the Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment charged Noel in con­nec­tion with the in­ci­dent.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the child, along with his younger broth­ers—aged five and sev­en—re­mains in the care of the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty.

The case has been trans­ferred to the Princes Town First Dis­trict Court, with the next hear­ing sched­uled for 17 March.