A now-17-year old boy who was accused of raping a 6-year-old when he was 13 years old, was on Wednesday acquitted of the offence.
For legal reasons, the name of the former-accused has to be withheld from publication because he was a juvenile at the time of the alleged commission of the offence. Following hours of deliberations, the 12-member jury returned its unanimous verdict, finding the teen not guilty of the offence of rape of a child under 16 years. The particulars of the offence had stated that between January 1st and July 31st of 2017, the teen sexually penetrated the 6-year-old.
The now 10-year-old girl told the court that she had been asleep when he held her hands down on the bed and crawled on top of her and raped her.