– Sentence to await probation report
Patrick Narine, 34, who sexually assaulted his then seven-year-old stepdaughter in 2003, was yesterday found guilty by a Demerara Assize jury of having carnal knowledge of a girl under 12 years.

Patrick Narine on his way to prison to await probation report and sentence.

Presiding Judge Justice Brassington Reynolds postponed sentence to December 14, to await a Probation report.

According to the Prosecution’s case as conducted by Miss Zamilla Alli, the accused had committed the crime on the child one night in May, 2003, while her mother was hospitalised from a fall.

The accused conducted his own defence and was supported by the mother of the child who was called as a defence witness. She told the judge and jury that when she came out of hospital her daughter did not tell her anything about the criminal assault.

But, under cross-examination, when confronted with a statement to the contrary which she, the mother, had given to the police during investigations, the mother admitted signing the statement but claimed at the time she made the statement she had just had surgery at the hospital and was in bed.

When asked by the prosecutor why she gave a different story to the jury to the one she gave to the police, she told the Prosecutor “I cannot now remember everything that happened.”

The witness however agreed with the prosecutor that what happened in 2003 was fresher in her memory in 2003 than it was in 2009.

The Prosecution, led by Miss Zamilla Alli, included Miss Latchmie Rahamat and Miss Rhondel Weever, and had submitted a case to show that the accused Patrick Narine, the stepfather of the girl whose mother had to be taken to hospital following a fall, committed the offence one night in May, 2003.

The mother, who was not called by the prosecution at the preliminary Inquiry, was called by the defence following the close of the prosecution’s case.

The mother had told the judge and jury that on her return home from hospital she did not recall her daughter telling her anything about what the stepfather is alleged to have done.

As a result of the evidence given by the mother, the prosecution produced a statement which the mother had given to the police when the matter was fresh in her memory and when she had given a different account to what she had told the jury.

The woman complained that the alleged statement which she had signed four times, was taken from her when she was in bed after taking her own discharge after surgery, and now could not remember what she had said.

She however admitted that the signatures on the statement were hers and that they were made at a time when the matter was fresher in her mind than it was at the jury trial.

When asked yesterday by the registrar whether she had any reason why the court should not proceed to pass sentence of him, the accused said, “I am innocent of this charge, I did not have sex with the girl.”