Latest update February 5th, 2025 11:03 AM
Minibus driver freed of rape charge
Freed of rape: Vishnu Persaud
A minibus driver was yesterday freed of a rape charge after a mixed 12-member jury unanimously found him not guilty of the offence.
Thirty-five year-old Vishnu Persaud, who faced a criminal trial at the Sexual Offences Court of the High Court in Georgetown, wept silently in the prisoner’s dock as the verdict was delivered and he was declared a free man.
Persaud was accused of raping a nine -year- old female at her home in Vreed-en-Hoop on September 21, 2017.
He was accused of sneaking into the home of a nine-year-old girl and raping her while her parents were away. The child’s mother said that the suspect went to the home on September 21, 2017 to meet with the child’s grandfather and noticed that the girl was home alone. He allegedly climbed over the verandah, entered the home and committed the act.
Persaud had however maintained his innocence through-out the trial. He was represented by Attorney Bernard Da Silva. State Prosecutors Seeta Bhishundial and Lisa Cave presented the case against Persaud.
At the conclusion of the matter, yesterday, presiding Judge Brassington Reynolds admonished Persaud to take the opportunity he had been given to make the best of the remainder of his life.
The judge noted the experience should serve as a sobering one. Justice Reynolds therefore advised Persaud live his life striving to please his Creator, whomever he perceives him to be.
According to news reports, the child’s mother recounted that her daughter told her that the man confronted her from the verandah and threatened to kill her if she made any noise.
“She said that the man took off her clothes and raped her on the chair and when the pain became too much, she started crying and he put his hands over her mouth but she managed to bite him and push him off and run and lock herself in the toilet.”
The mother said that her daughter later spotted her attacker at a bus park, and he was wearing the same attire that he was dressed in when the attack occurred.
The child’s relative apprehended the suspect and took him to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station where he was released on $100,000 bail after two days.
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