PHILIPSBURG--A 36-year-old man stood trial Wednesday on charges that he allegedly had sexual contacts with two minor girls. Carpenter M.G.P. is facing six years in jail if the Court considers it proven that he had committed illicit sexual acts with his stepdaughter and his wife’s cousin.
The suspect admitted that he had had a sexual relationship with his wife’s cousin between August 2003 and August 2005. The girl was older than 12 at that time, but had not yet reached the age of 15, which is the age of consent in the Netherlands Antilles.
M.G.P. said he was “a little” seduced by the girl, who was tall for her age. He told Judge Monique Keppels that he had only discovered later that she was only 14. “She looked like 15 or 16,” he told the judge. He said he ended the relationship when the girl became jealous and had started making problems.
M.G.P. denied he had ever been in a sexual relationship with his stepdaughter, from August 2004, when the girl was 10-years-old, until August 2009 when she was 15.
He said the girl had been a handful and disobedient, and had been roaming the streets at will, indicating that according to him she had fabricated the allegations to get even with her stepfather.
According to Prosecutor Rienk Mud, M.G.P. was performing damage control. “He admitted only partially to the allegations. That’s a nice story, but I don’t believe it at all.”
The Prosecutor said Wednesday that the case started rolling after the cousin was referred to a psychologist because she was auto-mutilating herself. After the stepdaughter had left her home, the cousin, who knew that M.G.P. also had sexual contacts with his stepdaughter, brought the case into the open.
According to his stepdaughter, the man started abusing her when she was ten. “I thought I had finally found a dad,” she had told the Police, “but look what he has done to me.” The Prosecutor said he had little doubt that M.G.B. had committed the crimes.
In her final plea as a criminal lawyer, attorney Anjenie Lachman said her client, who is suffering from leukaemia, is denying the allegation that he had had sexual contacts with his stepdaughter or had threatened her.
“The girl is very unruly. She had tried to commit suicide with a razor blade when she was 12. She’s currently living together with her 24-year-old boyfriend,” Lachman said in a brief sketch of the victim’s character.
Maybe the girls had fabricated the story of sexual abuse, said Lachman in pleading for a sentence equal to her client’s pre-trial detention, or a suspended sentence. The Judge will give her decision on February 24.
