July 8, 2019
(CMR) A 28-year-old Windsor Park man accused of raping his stepsister multiple times over the course of several years was found not guilty today after the victim was no longer to continue giving her testimony.
The DPPs office decided to drop the week old case is what appears to have been a potential calamity of justice because there was no independent evidence to corroborate the alleged victim's statements. The complainant, now 20, had alleged that she was first raped by her step-brother when she was only 5-years-old. He stated that the assaults and spanned over a 10-year period starting around 2004 or 2005.
Her original testimony was taken from four separate police interviews. However, after several days of cross examination it was revealed she was too distraught to continue. Grand Court judge Justice Roger Chapple had to find him not guilty on all counts.
It was disclosed last week that the case was poorly handled by the police after 2.5 years lapsed between her first disclosure and the police testimony.
The assaults allegedly began in 2004 or 2005 and carried through all the way until 2015, but the complainant gave differing accounts of when it ended in her testimony. There was no physical evidence involved in the case, which hinged exclusively on the testimony of the complainant. The complainant admitted in cross-examination that there were errors in her police testimony, and she indicated that the inconsistencies happened because she was under pressure.
It was also revealed that English is not her first language. She alleged that the defendant had threatened her life in English but could not explain how she had understood him.
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