One Corozal man gets 7 years for incest and assault of minor…

A case in the Orange Walk Supreme Court ended today with a father of seven being sentenced to jail for Incest and Aggravated Assault. To protect the identity of the minor, we cannot reveal his name, but Justice Herbert Lord stipulated a sentence of four years for incest and three for the aggravated assault of his thirteen year old daughter. Because the sentences are to run concurrently, the accused will only spend four years behind bars. The minor, who was only twelve at the time of the crime, testified that her father sexually assaulted her on two occasions in the sea in Corozal Town. The father was initially charged with two counts of incest, but the girl told the court that in the first instance, which was on June twenty-eighth, 2007, there was no intercourse, although her father touched her inappropriately. This information led Justice Lord to direct the jury to find the father not guilty of the first count of incest, and he was instead found guilty of aggravated assault. The girl testified that a couple of months later on August sixteenth, she and her father were in the sea again and this time he had sex with her. To add to the minor’s testimony, an independent witness told the court that he was also in the bay when the second incident occurred and he saw the child on top of the man in shallow waters. Their movements made him suspicious and so he went over to investigate and found that they were both nude. The witness said he asked the man about his relationship with the child and he was told that they were father and daughter. The father, who was unrepresented, did not make a statement at the dock but he did address the jury, saying that he loves his children and would never do such a thing. The case was prosecuted by Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez.