It took a Port-of-Spain ju­ry a lit­tle un­der three hours yes­ter­day to ac­quit a 48-year-old man ac­cused of rap­ing a 12-year-old girl.Trevor Red­man, of Pe­tit Val­ley, walked out of the Hall of Jus­tice, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain, a free man yes­ter­day af­ter the nine-mem­ber ju­ry–con­sist­ing of eight men and one woman–found him not guilty of two sex­u­al of­fences.

Af­ter the con­clu­sion of the tri­al, Red­man thanked his at­tor­ney, Shali­ni Khan, his sis­ter and sev­er­al po­lice of­fi­cers who were stand­ing in the court.His al­leged vic­tim, who was al­so seat­ed in the court, cried as the ju­ry's fore­man re­turned with the ver­dicts in favour of Red­man.Jus­tice Hay­den St Clair Dou­glas presided over the tri­al in the Fifth Crim­i­nal Court.

Red­man was ac­cused of hav­ing sex with a mi­nor and of se­ri­ous in­de­cen­cy. The charges arose out of two al­leged in­ci­dents in 2003.The case was pros­e­cut­ed by Jen­nifer Mar­tin and Suni­ta Ram­jat­tan.