Trial for father for sex with daughter

A FATHER was committed on Thursday to stand trial for having sex with his 12-year-old daughter.

He had been before senior magistrate Jo-Anne Connor in the San Fernando magistrates’ court charged with having sex with a female under 12 and sexually touching her. The incidents are alleged to have happened at the family’s home in Gasparillo on April 2, 2017.

Police prosecutor Sgt Ashley Mongroo tendered 11 witness statements and pursued the preliminary inquiry through paper committal.

Last week Friday, the father asked the magistrate to allow him to cross-examine the mother and daughter.

Yesterday, they turned up in court and two screens were brought into the courtroom. They were to be placed in front of the witness box to block the father’s view of his wife and daughter if they were called to give evidence.

The security measure is in accordance with new rules in the adjudication process under the Sexual Offences Act, to facilitate children when they testify in sex-related matters against relatives.

But when the case was called, attorney Annalee Girwar told Connor the accused father did not wish to have him cross-examine the girl and her mother.

The magistrate then told the father the police had made out a prima-facie case for him to answer, and committed him to stand trial at the next sitting of the assizes.

Connor readjusted his bail to $50,000 but granted him a cash alternative of $10,000 to be approved by a clerk of the peace.