Victim wanted for cross-examination disappears, believed abducted
MINIBUS driver Rayan Khan, who was on trial for allegedly having sex with a 13-year old girl in 2008, had his trial aborted yesterday after the prosecution’s main witness (the victim) failed to turn up for cross-examination by defence counsel. While defence counsel Mr. Paul Fung-a-Fat, who was retained during the closing stages of the trial, was waiting yesterday to cross-examine the girl, who was reported missing two days ago, Prosecutor Teshana James requested that the trial be aborted because of the absence of the main witness.
The prosecutor cited legal authorities in support of her contention that the trial should be postponed at the instance of the prosecutor or the defendant, showing to the court a sufficient cause for the delay, such as sudden illness of the defendant.
The Prosecutor also cited the Criminal LAW Procedure Act Section 151 (3) and 171 (1) which basically allows a judge under circumstances of the case, to postpone a trial and discharge the jury without calling on them for a verdict.
Justice Dawn Gregory upheld the application by the prosecutor. She ordered that the trial be aborted and discharged the jury without calling on them for a verdict.
The judge told the accused that his trial was aborted and that his retrial would come up at the October Criminal Session.
The accused, who was on bail in the sum of $150,000, was allowed to go on the same bail.
The virtual complainant, who is now 16, had told the jury in her evidence in chief that she was 13 when the accused took her to his home at Soesdyke –Linden Highway and had sex with her.
The prosecution witnesses had told the judge and jury that the offence was committed on May 31, 2008.
During cross-examination, the chief investigator had said that he did not know the lot at which the offence was allegedly committed. He said that the girl had only pointed to a house and did not tell him the lot.
And the investigator claimed that he did not seek to test the  girl’s story with an independent source.
When the girl was testifying during her evidence in chief, she was in tears.