A fa­ther of three, ac­cused of mo­lest­ing a 15-year-old school­girl, was yes­ter­day grant­ed $100,000 bail. Mi­ni-mart own­er Wor­rell Allen, 48, of Nel­son Street, Port-of-Spain, plead­ed not guilty to charges of sex­u­al as­sault against the mi­nor when he ap­peared in the Port-of-Spain Sev­enth Court.

Allen is ac­cused of as­sault­ing the girl, who lives in Tacarigua, on No­vem­ber 11 last year. The in­ci­dent was al­leged­ly com­mit­ted at a house in Port-of-Spain. Dur­ing his court ap­pear­ance, Allen's lawyer Richard Clarke-Wills told Mag­is­trate Mau­reen Ba­boolal-Gafoor that his client was the sole bread­win­ner for his fam­i­ly.

Be­fore he was grant­ed bail, how­ev­er, po­lice pros­e­cu­tor Sgt Wayne Mo­hammed re­quest­ed that Allen sur­ren­der his pass­port, be­cause im­mi­gra­tion records showed he fre­quent­ly trav­elled to Cana­da. Allen was al­so or­dered not to con­tact the vic­tim in the mat­ter. He is ex­pect­ed to reap­pear in court on April 11.