Mother, daughter differ on description of accused underwear
THE mother and her daughter in the carnal knowledge case at the Demerara Assizes differed yesterday in the description of the underwear of the accused. The 13-year-old victim said her stepfather; Cecil Romeo stripped himself of his pants, shorts and ‘buckta’ before engaging in the sex act but her mother said her husband does not sleep in pyjamas, only a brief.
The teenager, of Parika Backdam, East Bank Essequibo, testified that the accused, a former sawmill employee, would seize the opportunity to have sex with her whenever her mother was in a drunken stupor and he did so about five times.
She told the court, one night while her mother was in such a state, the accused left his mattress where he and his wife were lying in the one-room house and came onto her mattress, where he removed her skirt and undergarment.
Then he took off his pants, shorts and ‘buckta’ and had sexual intercourse with her. She said she screamed, saying: “Look my stepfather is having sex with me, but no one came to her assistance, despite her shouts for help.”
The accused, who is conducting his own defence, apart from saying that he was innocent and a victim of spite, did not ask the girl any questions.
Asked by the judge, how the accused used to treat her, the victim said: “He would not give me not even a $20. When he was not working at the sawmill, I had to beg on the street, to get money to feed him.”
The girl’s testimony about begging was supported by that of the probation officer who said it was the begging by the mother and daughter that caused the Care and Protection Service to visit Romeo’s home to see what assistance could be given.
The probation officer said it was on that visit that the girl told her about the sexual relationship between her and her stepfather, resulting in the matter being reported to the police.
But the girl’s mother, who was upbraided by the judge for answering the prosecutor “Yes Baby” instead of “Yes Madam”, said it was she who had seen the suspicious movement of the accused and the victim, in bed that made her report to the Care and Protection Services.
At the close of the prosecution’s case yesterday, after the accused declined to address the jury, leading State Prosecutor Teshana James-Lake, who is associated with Diana Kaulesar, did not exercise the right.
Justice Winston Patterson will sum up the evidence to the jury today.
On trial is 46-year-old Cecil Romeo, who is indicted for having sexual intercourse with his 13-year-old stepdaughter in August 2007.