Former athlete jailed for eight years for sexually abusing daughter

By Latrishka Thomas

Latrishka.thomas@antiguaobserver.com

A former athlete has been sentenced to eight years in prison after a jury convicted him of sexually abusing his young daughter.

The sentence follows a High Court trial that began in early July before Justice Ann Marie Smith. An all-female jury found him guilty on two counts of serious indecency and acquitted him on a third charge. He was sentenced to eight years on each count, with the terms to run concurrently.

According to evidence presented at trial, the abuse occurred between 2022 and 2023 when the man’s girlfriend was away from home. Prosecutors said he digitally penetrated his daughter on one occasion and pressed his genitals against her body on another.

The girl testified that her father summoned her to his bed and told her to undress. She said she feared the abuse would happen again and did not want to return to live with him.

Defence attorney Wendel Alexander suggested during cross-examination that the girl’s grandmother had coached her to fabricate the allegations. The girl rejected that claim.

The grandmother testified that the girl once hid in a closet to avoid going to her father’s home. On another occasion, she said, they turned back shortly after leaving because the child could not stop crying. The grandmother also denied defence suggestions that she had fabricated the allegations or neglected her granddaughter.