A MIXED 12-member jury, on Thursday, found 33-year-old taxi driver, Damon Assanah, called “Demon”, guilty of raping a 13-year-old schoolgirl back in 2015.
Assanah was on trial before Justice Brassington Reynolds at the Sexual Offences Court of the Demerara High Court on three counts of rape, which charged that during the months of January, October and November 2015, he engaged in sexual penetration with a child, who was, at the time, under the age of 16.
The jury, after deliberating for two hours, returned a “not guilty” verdict on the first two counts, but found Assanah guilty on the last one.
Sentencing has been deferred until June 3, pending the presentation of a probation report.
The State was represented by prosecutors Sarah Martin and Nafeeza Baig, and Assanah by Attorney-at-law Ravindra Mohabir.

According to reports, Assanah is known to the victim and her family, and during the month of January 2015, he lured her out of her home and raped her near a ‘fowl-pen’. Some nine months later, while returning home after being sent on an errand by her mother, Assanah again struck, grabbing the child this time around and unceremoniously throwing her into his motorcar, and headed for home, where he allegedly raped her again.
Things, however, came to a head on December 7, 2015, when the teen, at school, began vomiting and that prompted her mother to take her to a city hospital, where blood and urine tests confirmed that she was seven weeks pregnant.
At that point, the teen confided in her mother what had transpired. The police were called in and Assanah was arrested.