Shopkeeper charged with assaulting children

A shopkeeper was charged today following statements to police by two children who claim he molested them. 65 year old Artemio Gomez was taken over to Magistrate Court today where he was charged with aggravated assault. Police say the charges follow a report last week of an incident at Gomez’s Belize City shop last December. Police say the primary school girls claim the shopkeeper exposed himself to them. The Gomez family says the allegations are lies and the shopkeeper is being wrongfully accused. Instead, they say it was the children who were causing the trouble by constantly going into the shop and begging for money and goods. The family says that when Gomez told them that he would report them to their principal they threatened to say that he had molested them. Gomez pleaded not guilty today and was released on bail in the amount of $3,000 plus one surety of the same amount. He is scheduled to reappear in court on May 15th.