Molester FINED for attacking 8-year-old girl

A child molester from the Belize District has been fined for an attack against an eight year old girl. According to court reports, Godfrey Coote was found guilty of aggravated assault after the child reported that he had oral sex with her in 2004. Throughout trial, Coote did not deny the incident. For the offence, Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord fined him two thousand five hundred dollars. Coote will have to pay one thousand dollars immediately or spend the next two years in jail. In connection with the same case, the victim’s mother and a friend were later charged with attempted murder, dangerous harm, and use of deadly means of harm after they attacked Coote with a baseball bat and knife in September. He had to be admitted to the hospital and only recently recovered sufficiently from his injuries in order to appear in court today. But in an interesting turn of events, as the abuse case was being processed this morning, News Five has been informed that Coote was sentenced in absentia in 2000 on an aggravated burglary charge, a charge which carried a seven year sentence. We understand that court officials are now in the process of locating that file.