Daughter of rape victim on jury panel for the case

A new jury will have to be empanelled in a rape case in the Supreme Court. And that is because the original jury of six women and three men selected yesterday was discharged today by Justice Herbert Lord because one of the jurors is closely related to complainant, a forty-five year old nurse. As the retrial of fifty-one year old taxi driver Dennis Gabourel, charged with Rape and Grievous Harm was set to begin, Justice Lord asked the jury if any of them were connected to the case and a female juror then revealed that she is a daughter of the complainant. As a result, Gabourel’s attorney, Hubert Elrington submitted that the complainant’s daughter had ample opportunity to discuss the case with the other jurors and requested that a new jury should be selected.

Initially, Gabourel was charged with two counts of rape of his ex-common law wife and one count of causing grievous harm to her for incidents which occurred on September nineteenth, 2003. On October twenty-first, 2005 a jury found him guilty of one count of rape, grievous harm and aggravated assault. He was acquitted on the second count of rape. Seven days later he was sentenced to eight years for rape, three years for grievous harm and two years for aggravated assault.

Gabourel appealed and a retrial was ordered for the rape and grievous harm charges. The Belize Court of Appeal was of the view that the case of aggravated assault should have been tried separately since it involved a different set of circumstances. Those circumstances relate to the fact that the aggravated assault of an indecent nature charge was not of his common law wife but of his step-daughter. In court today, Justice Lord concurred and after discharging the jury, adjourned the case until Wednesday, January twentieth, when a new jury will be selected for the retrial.