A 37-year-old man from Freeport has been freed of having sex with a teenager.
The man, whose identity was withheld based on the nature of the case and its eventual outcome, was acquitted of the sexual penetration of a minor charge at the end of his judge-alone trial before Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds on Monday.
He was accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl in a guest house in Chase Village in January, last year.
During the trial, State prosecutors produced records showing that the teenager left her school with the man, who she knew through her mother.
They also produced CCTV footage showing the man and the teenager entering and leaving a room in the guest house.
They also relied on CCTV footage from a pharmacy, where prosecutors claimed the man purchased an emergency contraceptive pill after they left the guest house.
During the trial, his defence attorney Taradath Singh raised numerous inconsistencies between the evidence given by the teen at trial and in her initial witness statement to the police.
Singh also claimed that the alleged victim and her mother visited his home on the night the offence reportedly occurred.
He also contended that his client went to the guest house with the teenager to film a video to make her then-boyfriend jealous but they did not have sex as alleged.
Singh also alleged that days after the teenager made a report to the police, his client was contacted by her mother’s Venezuelan boyfriend, who demanded that he pay a sum of money for her to withdraw the accusation.
In finding the man not guilty of the crime, Justice Ramsumair-Hinds noted that prosecutors and by extension police investigators failed to adduce any scientific evidence proving that sexual intercourse occurred.
She also noted there was evidence of the bribe being sought through the intermediary.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was represented by Charmaine Samuel and Gilliana Guy. —Derek Achong