Testifying in the trial of a man accused of raping his 12-year-old stepdaughter, a witness said she observed changes in the complainant’s behaviour and noticed thin cuts on the child’s arm.
The woman told the No. 4A Supreme Court that the girl and her younger siblings would stay at her house in the evenings, after school, under an arrangement with their mother.
She said either the accused or the mother would pick up the children after work and take them home. The witness recalled that there were times when the man would become angry and curse when he and the mother “had noise”, but “otherwise he was okay”.
The woman stated that the complainant stayed with her most evenings throughout her primary and secondary school years and she noticed a change in the girl’s behaviour after she changed schools.
“At primary school, she was one of those children who were very quiet because she had a problem with studying. When she got to secondary school, I found that even when I spoke to her, she was a bit strange. I did not understand why because I know that was not her, and then I saw she was doing strange things to her body. One day she came to me and I talked to her and did her hands like this (gestures) and I ask her what was that? She said she cut herself. So when I asked her mum, she said (the complainant) start doing this cutting thing just so. I did not know what it was for,” she told the court, describing the cuts as thin lines along the arm.
“I asked her why she was doing it and she never told me,” she added.
During the cross-examination by defence attorney Rasheed Belgrave, the witness could not recall any instance when the complainant arrived at her home around 7 p.m.
Asked whether she had ever seen the complainant’s mother and the accused physically fight, the witness stated, “I remember a time when he kept the children, it got very heated, but I cannot recall if anything physical like lashes or anything happened because it was so long ago.”
The stepfather is charged with two counts of raping the minor on December 31, 2016. He was 41 years old at the time.
Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis and State Counsel Tito Holder are prosecuting the matter.
Acting Justice Donna Babb-Agard presides.
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