One charged, one convicted in separate rapes

A man from the Stann Creek District has been arrested for the rape of his eight year old daughter. On March eighth the child and her mother reported to Independence police that on February twenty-seventh the father took the girl into a bushy area near a farm where he forcibly had sex with her. A doctor subsequently confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted. The father has been charged with the crimes of Incest and Harm.

Meanwhile a Belize City man was today found guilty of the rape a nineteen year old student. It took the jury three hours to unanimously convict thirty-five year old Mark Cardinez. Justice Michelle Arana has deferred sentencing until next Monday to give Cardinez time to prepare a mitigation plea. During trial, the victim testified that in June 2006, the defendant attacked her in her room, forced her to take a shower and then raped her again in the bathroom. In his defence, Cardinez gave a statement from the dock, maintaining that at the time of the incident he was not at home. He was represented by Ernest Staine while crown counsel Nigel Ebanks prosecuted.