Security guard remanded on carnal knowledge charges

A Belize City security guard was formally arraigned on charges of carnal knowledge in connection with two separate incidents: one that is alleged to have occurred nine years ago and a second, six years ago. According to court reports, the sixteen year old victim claims that in October 1996, when she was seven years old, her then neighbour Miguel Portillo took her on his bicycle to an area in the Lord Ridge Cemetery and had sex with her. The girl says in January of 2000, when she was ten years old, Portillo attacked her again at her home. The victim has told authorities that following the rapes, Portillo told her that he would kill her if she told anyone what had happened. This morning, forty-seven year old Miguel Portillo, a resident of Mahogany Street, appeared in Belize City Magistrate’s Court where he was charged with two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge and threat of death. Portillo was remanded to custody until December twentieth.