By George Barclay

TESTIFYING via Skype at the Demerara Assizes on Friday, Eric Stoby, father of murdered nine-year-old Sade Stoby, explained how he stumbled on the body of Sade in Mocha backdam, one day in November 2007, while searching for her.He said that he and a search party had begun looking for the girl after she left her Mocha home for school that Friday morning and failed to return by afternoon. It was not until the afternoon of the second day that he found her swollen body on a muddy dam with little water not far from an aqueduct.

The dead girl was partly naked, and her feet were spread apart, said Eric Stoby, who now resides overseas.

Presiding Judge, Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, heard the father tell the jury, the prosecution and defence lawyers how he had proceeded to report the discovery to the police.

The police subsequently picked up suspects Jevon Wharton, who was then 16, and Charles Collin Cush, who was then 14. Following the investigations, during which the accused had allegedly made caution statements admitting to the crime, both young men were indicted with murder.

This is their second trial after the first ended with a hung jury.

The prosecutors are Shonette Austin and Siand Dhurjon, and the defence attorneys are Maxwell Mc Kay and D. Kissoon.

Among the witnesses who testified yesterday were Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh, who gave an explanation about his examination of the body, and chief investigator, Assistant Police Commissioner Elston Baird.

Dr Singh told the jury about the condition of the body of the young girl, which revealed that she might have been sexually assaulted. He said she had an injury to her vagina which gave the impression that she might have been assaulted. She also had an injury to the head, and another injury at the back of the neck which gave the impression that she had received a blow on that spot.

During cross-examination by the attorney McKay, the pathologist said the injury to the girl’s head was consistent with her sustaining a fall and hitting her head on an uneven surface.

Baird, in his evidence, had testified that the accused Wharton had told him that he had sexual intercourse with the girl and afterwards she fell and struck her head. He left her after the fall, but had returned the next day, when he realized that she had died.

The prosecution is expected to call another witness before closing its case. The trial will continue on Tuesday morning at 9:00am. It is expected that the defence will make no-case submissions.