Thirty-five-year-old farmer Eric Scotland was yesterday afternoon acquitted on charges which alleged that he had raped a 13-year-old girl back in 2016.
Following hours of deliberations, a jury returned with its majority verdict in a proportion of 11 to 1—finding him not guilty of raping the teen.
He was 30 years old at the time.
The visibly relieved man who repeatedly showed the sign of the cross after learning his fate, was high in praise to the judge and jury; both to whom he expressed his gratitude.
Justice Brassington Reynolds told Scotland that he was free to go, but not before cautioning him that it was the closest he would want to get to such an allegation being leveled against him.
The judge told him that only he and the complainant really know what did or did not happen on the day in question, but that he should use the experience of having been charged and placed before the court, as a learning one
In his admonition, Justice Reynolds told the former-accused to use the experience as a salutary one and to educate other men who may find themselves in the “domestic and living circumstances” in which he had found himself.
Referencing the support of Scotland’s wife and family who the judge pointed out had been there for him, he told him to grab the opportunity he had been given with both hands, and to stay clear of any other brush with the law.
The state’s case led by Prosecutor Nafeeza Baig is that Scotland had held onto the girl, placed her on the ground, restrained her, covered her mouth and sexually penetrated her.
The trial proceedings were held in-camera at the Sexual Offences Court of the High Court in Georgetown.
