A Cou­va man was grant­ed bail in the sum of $150,000 with a sure­ty when he ap­peared be­fore Mag­is­trate Alexan­der Prince at the Cou­va 2nd Mag­is­trates Court on Wednes­day, De­cem­ber 7, 2022.

The 37-year-old man was charged with Sex­u­al Pen­e­tra­tion of a Child and As­sault Oc­ca­sion­ing Ac­tu­al Bod­i­ly Harm.

The mat­ter was ad­journed to Jan­u­ary 4, 2023.

Po­lice re­ports state that on De­cem­ber 1, 2022, a man al­leged­ly pushed his step-daugh­ter on­to a bed at his home and had sex­u­al in­ter­course with her, against her will. The ac­cused al­so re­port­ed­ly choked the 16-year-old girl, threat­ened her and then slapped her on her face.

A re­port was made to the Gran Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion on De­cem­ber 1, and the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Child Pro­tec­tion Unit con­duct­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tions. The man was ar­rest­ed and charged on De­cem­ber 5, 2022.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions were spear­head­ed by Supt Claire Guy-Al­leyne, ASP Seecha­ran, In­sp David­son and Sgt. Ce­de­no-Fi­garo and con­duct­ed by WPC Rogers-Flem­ming.