Judge to sum up rape trial evidence today
– Prosecutor urges jurors not to ‘fall for the lies told by the accused’ but believe the evidence led by the Prosecution
JUSTICE Brassington Reynolds is expected to sum up the evidence in a rape trial to the mixed jury at the Berbice Assizes today. In the case, 17-year-old Shazim Bashalot, alias ‘Ya Ye’, is indicted with the February 3, 2009 offence of carnal knowledge, to which he pleaded not guilty and is on remand at the New Amsterdam Prison.
The State is alleging that he committed the crime on a 12-year-old girl at Bath Waterloo, West Coast Berbice .
However, in an unsworn statement from the dock, the accused raised the issue of alibi, claiming he had been in the backlands fishing and, on returning home, his mother took him to Fort Wellington Police Station, where he was detained for two weeks on an allegation of bicycle larceny.
Defence counsel, Ravindranauth Singh urged the jury to reject the prosecution’s story, stating that it is laced with doubts.
According to him, the state prosecutor, Rhondel Weaver, in her opening address, informed the court that seven witnesses will testify but, during the proceedings, was unable to present the lead investigator, Police Corporal Jethu, who staged the confrontation between the virtual complainant and the accused.
Defence counsel noted the absence of bloodstains and what he described as discrepancies in the complainant’s evidence.
But, in her reply, Weaver, urged the jury to take note of the seriousness of the crime which was committed on a minor.
“You must not have any sympathy for either side,” she emphasised.
Weaver said the two elements which needed to be proven and the facts that it was the accused who had sex with the virtual complainant and that the girl was under the age of fifteen years.
The prosecutor said the girl’s mother testified that her daughter was born on February 16, 1996 and that was corroborated by the teenager.
Weaver reminded the jurors that the case for the prosecution is solely based on the first element, as it was the accused that had sex with the victim.
The victim had testified that she once lived next door to the accused, prior to the destruction of her home by fire.
On February 3, 2009, following instructions from her mother, she prepared her three siblings for school, before joining her mother at Bath Primary School, where she assisted her in cleaning the classrooms.
After completing that task, she returned to the one-bedroom house where she searched for her parents, as they were in the habit of hiding from her. But instead of finding them, she saw the accused behind a barrel in her bedroom.
She was about to scream, when the accused covered her mouth with a blue and white jersey and tied it behind her head. Then he threw her on the bed, undressed her, removed his clothes and placed his soft penis inside her, before removing it seconds later and reinserting the now hard male organ.

WINING
Presently 16 years old, the girl said she made a failed attempt to shout but, after wining on her for about five minutes, the accused told her not to tell anyone as he would kill her. Then he jumped through an open window, she related.
Sandra Baldeo, a social worker, was conducting a truancy campaign in the area when she observed the accused jump through the window unto a shed, land on the ground and hide in nearby grass on seeing her.
The witness said she stopped and looked in his direction for about ten minutes before continuing her exercise.
Three days later, Baldeo said she informed the girl’s mother of the occurrence.
On February 6, 2009, the victim’s mother took her to the Fort Wellington Cottage Hospital, where she was examined by a medical practitioner who issued a medical certificate which indicated that the girl’s hymen was not intact.
Weaver told the jury that, on April 5, 2009, the accused, when contacted and told of the allegation by Corporal Jethu, in the presence of Constable Mark Fraser admitted having sex with the minor.
She said, when confronted the following day at Fort wellington Police Station, the accused, in the presence of the victim’s and his mother, confessed.
About the alibi, Weaver urged the jurors not to fall for the lies told by the accused but believe the evidence led by the prosecution.