Man in custody for rape, woman released on bail for sexual abuse of a minor

A man from Airy Hill, St Joseph, has been sent to Dodds Prison after admitting to raping a 12-year-old girl ten years ago.

This admission was made just moments before jury selection in the 2nd Supreme Court for the trial of 69-year-old Winston Harcourt Boyce, while his attorney Derek Boyce requested a retrial for his client.

Boyce was accused of having illicit sexual intercourse with the minor between May 18 and 19, 2014.

Co-defendant Rushanty Mozel Ashton, 27, of Golden Ridge, St George, also threw in the towel and admitted to indecently assaulting the girl on May 19, 2014. She was represented by her lawyer Dave Cumberbatch.

Lead prosecutor Olivia Davis accepted the plea on behalf of the state, telling the court that the plaintiff’s mother remembered not going to bed until after 8 p.m. on the evening of May 18, leaving her daughter in her room watching television. When she woke up after midnight, she found the side door unlocked and the child missing. She searched the neighborhood and called the police, who arrived at the scene.

Later that morning, she noticed a conversation on the smart TV in her daughter’s room with a man named Shawn Daniel, Boyce’s son. Davis pointed out that Daniel had already been convicted of the assault. During the conversation, Daniel told the girl he was coming to pick her up and she should not fall asleep.

Her daughter did not return home until after 1pm that day and the mother immediately called the police. They went to the police station and then to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where the girl was examined and admitted. After her discharge, she was referred to the psychiatric hospital for counselling.

Judge Randall Worrell sent Boyce to jail and adjourned the case until July 17. Ashton remains free on bail.