Moments after being convicted on charges of raping a teenaged girl, shop owner Wesley Bazil collapsed at the High Court in Demerara after cutting his neck with a razor blade he had concealed on him.
Bazil, called ‘Tappy’ had just heard from a jury that he had been found unanimously guilty of engaging in sexual activity with the 15-year-old on the first count, and raping her on the second.
Following the announcement of the jury’s verdicts, High Court Judge, Navindra Singh, who presided over the trial, ordered that the convict be remanded to prison to await sentencing.
It was at this time that the man, armed with the razor blade, inflicted the injury upon himself from which he seemed to have passed out, thus warranting emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who were subsequently summoned.
There was an uproar after the convict began cutting himself and bleeding, which caused a disturbance in the courtroom of Justice Singh and saw the marshal springing into action to prevent him from inflicting further injuries.
Justice Singh has deferred sentencing to July 12th, to first hear from a probation and other social-impact reports.
The trial proceedings were heard in-camera at the Sexual Offences Court of the High Court in Demerara.
Background
The prosecution’s case was that in December of 2020, the teen had gone to Bazil’s shop to make a purchase when he fondled her.
A month later, prosecutors say that the complainant again went to the shop and upon that occasion, Bazil dragged her under the counter door and took her to an area of his back yard where he raped her.
The court heard that some two months following the assaults, the young girl’s father saw her on her cell phone while in bed, took it away, and gave her to her mother to have a check.
It was then that her mother discovered that she had been messaging a friend about what the shop-owner had done to her.
Based on that, the matter was reported and Bazil was charged.
The convict’s story presented through his attorney Euclin Gomes, was that he was innocent and that the assaults never occurred.
The State’s case was led by prosecutor Tiffini Lyken, in association with prosecutors Nafeeza Baig and Praneeta Seeraj.
