(Jamaica Gleaner) Prominent Montego Bay businessman Patrick Chung was yesterday freed of all 11 sexual assault charges in relation to a woman who accused him of having sex with her over a nine-year period, beginning in 1976 when she was 13 years old.
Chung, 78, was freed of six counts of incest and five counts of indecent touching after a successful no-case submission in the St James Circuit Court.
The court ruled that the prosecution failed to produce the evidence necessary to prove allegations of sexual assault.
Attorney-at-law Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, QC, who is representing Chung, told The Gleaner yesterday that her client and his family feel vindicated.
“The whole family is extremely relieved because it’s been like a weight on their backs for all these years,” said Samuels-Brown.
Chung was charged in April 2012, six months after the 49-year-old woman claiming to be his daughter made a formal report to the police. She was adopted.
ACCUSATIONS
She alleged that between January 1, 1976, and December 31, 1985, Chung had sex with her at the family home in Montego Bay, St James, in a room located above the supermarket he operated in the resort town and also in Canada while she was away studying.
After appearing before the Circuit Court nine times and still no trial, Chung attempted to have the charges stayed on the basis that the 34-year wait to have his day in court would prejudice – or was likely to prejudice – his right to a fair trial within a reasonable time under the Jamaican Constitution.
However, the Constitutional Court ruled in April that he had to stand trial by the end of the year.
In May, a DNA test revealed that Chung was not the biological father of the woman.
This finding followed an application by the prosecution in April, requesting a non-intimate DNA sample from Chung to determine the relation between him and the woman.