A 50-year-old man was yesterday charged with raping a nine-year-old girl and was placed on $200,000 bail when he appeared at the Sparendaam Magistrates’ Court.
According to the particulars of the charge, on January 6, at an East Coast Demerara village, O’Neil Reis raped the girl.
The man, who was represented by attorney Trenton Lake was not required to plead to the indictable charge, after it was read to him by Magistrate Alex Moore.
The matter was transferred to the Cove and John Magistrates’ Court, where it will be called again on January 17.
According to reports, the accused is a family friend of the child’s mother whom she has known from childhood.
On the day of the incident, this newspaper was told, the child’s mother was preparing lunch when the accused visited. According to the mother, she asked him to babysit her two children, a baby and the nine-year-old, while she went to the next village to pay utility bills.
The woman said that on her arrival back home, she noticed that the door to her house was locked and she began calling the accused and the child to open the door.
She added that when she got into the house, she noticed that her daughter’s leggings were inside out. However, she did not query this, since she could not fathom an act as was committed.
The mother further related that it was not until January 10 when she was cleaning her daughter’s room that she discovered her bloody underwear under her bed. The woman said that when her daughter returned home from school and she questioned her, she was told of the alleged rape and that the man had also allegedly attempted to sodomise the child.
