~Acquitted of sexually assaulting step-daughter~
PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance on Thursday sentenced a man to a partially conditional four years in prison after finding him guilty of grooming and raping a fourteen-year-old girl.
R.E.A.K. (29) had also been charged with having sexually assaulted his former step-daughter over a period of four years, when she was between nine and 12 years old. However, the judge acquitted K. of these allegations, ruling there was insufficient evidence for conviction.
This newspaper refrains from publishing K.’s full name in an effort to protect the former step-daughter, who could be easily identified based on their past familial ties.
With two of the five charges proven, the judge sentenced K. to four years in prison, of which one year is conditional, on three years’ probation. He has also banned from contacting the 14-year-old and ordered to pay her approximately Cg. 23,225 in compensation.
During his trial earlier this month, K. admitted to having contacted the 14-year-old on social media platform Instagram in January but claimed that she told him that she was an adult.
The judge did not believe this claim, pointing to WhatsApp messages recovered from K.’s mobile phone that showed he wanted to know the name of her school. In another message read during his trial, K. was quoted as saying: “If I pick you up this morning to drop you school, I want sex. I’m on my way already, so what you going do?”
The judge also noted that the girl’s WhatsApp profile photo featured her and another girl wearing school uniforms.
The judge ruled that the messages demonstrated that the adult K. was the one pushing for them to meet in person for sexual reasons, an action required for a conviction for grooming.
During his trial, K. said he never met up with the girl in real life and repeatedly denied that he forced her to have sex in his car in May.
The judge did not believe this either, ruling that the girl’s detailed police statement was supported by the testimony of a relative, who saw her crying several hours after the crime and whom she later told what had happened.
Defence lawyer Safira Ibrahim had argued that the recovered messages from March could not be used as supporting evidence for rape, which had allegedly happened in May.
However, the judge dismissed this argument, ruling that the sexual nature and tone of the WhatsApp messages supported the girl’s claim.
In a chat on March 21, the girl told K. that she was “not in the mood for sex”. He responded that this was not his problem and that he was “not taking no as an answer”.
The judge acquitted K. of the three charges related to his former step-daughter. The prosecution and defence both argued for this outcome on two of the three, but they disagreed on the third charge, which stemmed from an incident in February 2023.
The prosecution wanted to the judge to come to a guilty verdict, arguing the victim’s account of inappropriate touching is supported by her younger sister’s testimony of them being “close together” on the couch.
However, lawyer Ibrahim had pointed out that the sister did not say that anything sexual was going on between K. and the alleged victim, only that they were “close”. Unlike the prosecutor, she argued that this supports her client’s testimony.
K. claimed that his step-daughter had been crying that day about something that happened at
school with her friends. He told the court that he called her over for a hug, but she tripped and fell into his lap just as the sister walked in.
Siding with Ibrahim, the judge ruled that the step-daughter’s account differed significantly from her sister’s on several “essential parts”. For example, the step-daughter said the crime occurred on the porch, while the sister said she saw them together in the living room.
“Because the statement [of the alleged victim – Ed.] is not sufficiently supported in the case file, the court cannot, in the absence of any other supporting evidence, reach a conviction,” the judge said.
The St. Maarten Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement about the verdict on Thursday afternoon, emphasizing that “protecting the most vulnerable, especially minors, is a fundamental duty of the jus-tice system.
“The sentence was issued in line with the prosecution’s demand,” the statement read. “The condi-tional part of the sentence includes supervision and behavioural conditions aimed at reducing the risk of reoffending… A compensation measure was imposed [too], meaning the country (government) may advance the payment and recover the amount from the defendant if he fails to comply.”
