Convicted rapist loses appeal over 2006 rape

A 39-year-old man who was sentenced to a little over 11 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old girl over 15 years ago has lost his appeal.

In an oral decision on Tuesday, Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mark Mohammed, and Maria Wilson, during a virtual hearing, dismissed all the grounds of appeal advanced by Peter Andrew Davis, who complained that the judge who presided over his trial made several errors which led to his conviction.

Wilson, who delivered the ruling, went through each of the grounds of complaint, dismissing them all.

Davis was represented by attorney Derrick Redman, who had argued on his client’s behalf that the judge failed to consider that it would have been difficult to provide an alibi, as prosecutors charged his client with committing the offence on an unknown date during a period of almost three weeks in May 2006.

He also questioned the judge’s direction on the issue of consent; argued the judge had improperly emphasised the victim’s age; and queried a character direction for Davis, who had a previous conviction for drug trafficking.

In dismissing all the arguments, Wilson said Davis was not prejudiced at his trial, nor did the judge fail to give proper directions to the jury on the issues raised in the appeal so as to render the jury’s verdict unsafe.

On the issue of consent, Wilson said it was not a situation where the victim consented and then withdrew it. She said the evidence was that the girl was forced against her will.

Davis’s sentence and convictions were affirmed.

According to the evidence in the case, the incident took place in May 2006, as the victim was walking near her home to meet her cousin by an arcade.

Davis, who was 24 at the time and had known the girl and her family for several years, stopped his vehicle and offered to take her for a drive.

When the victim refused, he offered to drop her to the arcade. But when she got into the car, he drove to a house in central Trinidad, where he raped her.

The victim eventually told her mother, who took her to the police to make a report a month after she was raped.

At the appeal hearing, special prosecutor Travers Sinanan, on the issue of consent, said, “The key word is 'stop.' and 'stop' means stop.”

High Court judge (now Justice of Appeal) Gillian Lucky, in sentencing Davis in August 2018, said the court was concerned that young boys and girls were seen as prey. “This court cannot turn a blind eye to the prevalence and seriousness of this type of offence,” Lucky said.

In his defence at the trial, Davis denied having any interaction with the teenager, or having sex with her. He claimed she fabricated the case against him.