Attempted Rape Case: Woman Delivers Detailed Description of Assailant at Bridgetown's Cave Shepherd Alley

A woman who suffered through an attempted rape gave police a most concise description of her intended rapist and the events which took place that morning at the back of Cave Shepherd in Bridgetown, including the assailant’s clothes, underwear, his “finney hand” and his private parts.

The statement the 54-year-old victim gave was in connection with Jason Jamar Newton, 37, of no fixed place of abode, who recently appeared before Justice Wanda Blair, in the No. 4A Supreme Court. He pleaded guilty to two sexual offences: that he attempted to have sex with the woman without her consent, knowing she did not consent or was reckless as to whether she did, on March 8, 2020, and indecently assaulting her on that same date.

Alley

Prosecutor Senior State Counsel Joyann Catwell, in outlining the facts, said the woman was in The City that Sunday morning. She turned through an alley close to Cave Shepherd and saw a man sitting on a bench. She knew him by seeing him every Sunday but they never spoke; he was on his phone at the time.

Another man then walked up on her right side and crossed in front of her, preventing her from walking. He pushed her in the chest and she fell backward and hurt her lower back. The man then stood over her, raised her dress and used both hands to lower her undergarments. She recalled that he was wearing a prettycoloured striped T-shirt, a short khaki pants to his knee and sneakers.

The court heard that as the man struggled to remove her under garments, she repeatedly shouted: “Leff me, leff me,” but Newton ignored her. As he lowered his pants and underwear, the woman noted he was wearing a plain grey boxer, and that he also had a “finney hand”. He then lifted her off the ground by the waist and attempted to rape her while standing.

Shouting for help

She continued shouting for help and before long, she heard a man shout at Newton three times, before he hurriedly dressed himself and left the area. It was the same man in the blue shirt who enquired

whether she was okay, turned his back as she dressed and offered to escort her over to Central Police Station.

The prosecutor also referred to the statement from the Good Samaritan. He was in Bridgetown on his way to church when he decided to take a minute to check his phone. He stopped at the back of Cave Shepherd and sat on one of the benches there for about two minutes, when he saw a woman in a blue dress. He also saw a man close to her, who was about five feet, eight inches tall, of brown complexion, and with a “drawn-up” hand.