Forty-two-year-old former office assistant Derrick Mohabir was on Friday acquitted of charges of raping and robbing a female police officer.
Following hours of deliberations, a jury retuned verdicts, acquitting the man on both charges.
While freed of those charges, however, Mohabir remains an inmate of the Mazaruni Prison where he is currently serving a five-year sentence, for a previous sexual assault for which he had been convicted by a magistrate last year.
On Friday afternoon, however, the jury returned a unanimous verdict, finding Mohabir not guilty of the charge which read that between November 9th and 10th, 2019 he sexually penetrated a woman without her consent.
In a proportion of 10 to 2, the jury also found Mohabir not guilty of violently robbing the said complainant of one silver and diamond ring during the alleged sexual assault.
When asked whether he wished to say anything, a visibly relieved Mohabir who appeared virtually from the Mazaruni Prison was high in praises for his acquittal.
“Your Honour, I thank Almighty God, the jury and the judge. God bless you all,” Mohabir told trial Judge Brassington Reynolds.
In response, the judge admonished him to “make the best of the rest of your life,” while cautioning him that it was the closest he would want to get to a sentence of life in prison— considering that—that was the maximum for the sexual offence for which he had been charged.
“Grab this opportunity given to you with both hands,” Justice Reynolds further encouraged.
The prosecution’s facts were that the Constable was on duty at a city location which she guarded, and was in her hut where she had switched off the lights on the night in question, in order to clearly see onto the road.
The court had heard that the woman had dozed off for about 10 minutes and was awoken by a loud noise which sounded like the padlock knocking against the gate.
This caused her to peek through the eastern window of her hut where she said she saw the accused outside the compound playing with his penis for some 10 minutes.
The court was told that because of what the woman witnessed Mohabir doing, she ensured that the door and windows to her hut were secured. At the time, the accused was said to have been about 10 feet away from where she was.
According to the facts presented by the prosecution, after the 10 minutes had elapsed, the accused jumped the fence, went to the guard hut, placed his hand at the top crease of the door and shook it for five mins until the top part of the door opened.
Thereafter, the court heard that the accused opened the bolt to the bottom door and stood in the entrance where he ordered the constable to perform oral sex on him.
The complainant had told the court that she refused the man’s demand, but he cuffed her to the left side of her face which left her weak, in pain and with a dizzy sensation.
The court heard that thereafter the accused held on to the woman’s shirt which he tried to take off, while fighting and resisting him, but he cuffed her several more times, causing her to feel even more dizzy.
The court heard that it was at this point that the accused then took off the complainant’s clothes and sexually penetrated her during which he continued cuffing her to the face as he restrained her.
The court was told that after the incident the woman called 911 and was escorted to the hospital where she was medically examined on 10th November, and positively identified the accused at an identification parade the following day.
The former-accused was represented by defence attorney Ravindra Mohabir.
The state’s case was led by Prosecutor Sarah Martin, in association with state counsel Nafeeza Baig.
The trial proceedings were heard in-camera at the Sexual Offences Court of the High Court in Georgetown.
