24-Year-Old Testifies About Father's Alleged Sexual Abuse in Incest Trial

A 24-year-old woman tearfully testified today that her father began raping her at the age of seven, not long after she moved into his home.

She was one of three witnesses who gave evidence on Thursday as the father’s incest trial got underway in Supreme Court No. 2 before Justice Randall Worrell and a nine-member jury.

The accused man faces two charges of committing incest, between 2005 and 2011, against his daughter who was under 14 years old at the time.

The woman explained to the court that after a custody battle between her parents, her father took her to live with him. She spoke of several instances of him sexually forcing himself on her before she eventually reported it to the police on October 6, 2013.

The prosecutor, Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis, asked the complainant what had occurred that day before she went to the police.

She testified that her father was upset she spent too much of the $100 he gave her as a gift for her upcoming birthday, on an outfit. When her grandmother who lived nearby came by in the evening to collect her to sleep over, her father said she was being punished and could not leave.

“We sat there watching television and he would make a weird face when he wanted to… and I knew what was coming,” the complainant stated.

When asked to explain further, she said that when her father was going to have sex with her, he would speak in soft tones, rub her back and get “touchy-feely”.

Using the excuse of needing to use the bathroom to escape the house on the night in question, she said she ran to her grandmother’s home to tell her what was happening before calling her aunt and the police.

She said the police came in the morning and took her and her aunt back to the house where she pointed out her and her father’s bedrooms. The accused was at home at the time. She and her aunt were then taken to the Hastings Police Station to give statements as well as to a doctor’s office where she underwent a medical examination.

Davis asked the complainant if she could recall the first time her father had forced himself on her. She responded that she was in Class One at primary school at the time.

“Truthfully, it happened a lot of times. I remember being in Class One. I remember being in his bedroom and him being on top of me…. I remember him asking if I wanted to go back down by my mother and I said ‘no’ but I wanted to say ‘yes’ but I did not want him to retaliate,” she tearfully recounted.

She broke down several times as she spoke about other instances, including one in which he had sex with her while she was ill.

When shown several photos taken of the accused’s home, the complainant pointed out the areas where she said the acts took place.

During cross-examination, lead defence counsel Alvan Babb asked the complainant about the type of relationship she had with her father during the years she lived with him.