Man to serve 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting niece, 10, on Christmas Day

A 47-YEAR-OLD MAN, from Central Trinidad, will serve the next 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting his then-ten-year-old niece on Christmas Day in 2009.

He will also register as a sex offender on the national registry and the public sex offender website as ordered by the judge on January 23.

Justice Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo ordered the man to report to the Cunupia police station seven days after his discharge from prison.

The judge further ordered him to report to the police for eight years every three months.

He was found guilty on January 16, by a jury which heard his victim’s account from the testimony she gave at the magistrates’ court. This is because she died before the matter reached the High Court for trial.

Prosecutors Dylan Martin and Niara Boodan successfully applied to have the victim’s depositions read to the jury as her evidence.

It was the State’s case that the girl and her little sister visited their uncle, then 32, aunt and three cousins on Christmas Eve to spend the holidays there.

Around 10.30 pm, the uncle’s common-law wife left home to go to work and the victim and the other children went to bed.

At about 1 am on Christmas Day, the man went into the room the victim and her sister were in, woke her up and took her to the living room.

There, prosecutors said, there was a pornographic movie playing on the television.

The girl’s uncle then assaulted her while she tried to stop him. He covered her mouth with his hand and when he was done, she saw her little sister standing nearby. The victim took her sister back to the bedroom.

When her aunt, the accused’s common-law wife, returned home she told her what he had done.

However, the aunt did nothing. The victim remained in the house until Boxing Day when her mother returned for them.

She then told her mother who immediately took her to the police station and then to the health centre.

The accused testified at his trial, denying all the allegations. He even denied the victim and her sister visited for the holidays that year.

In addition to the 12 years for grievous sexual assault, Waterman-Latchoo also imposed three years with hard labour for indecent assault, but his sentences are to run concurrently.

He was taken to prison on January 16.