PHILIPSBURG–A 49-year-old contractor was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday for raping a nineteen-year-old woman who was two days in his employment, on December 19, 2017.
The defendant Ashworth Robin denied the allegations during the March 28 Court hearing. He has a reputation of being a drunk and a womaniser, according to a witness, but the defendant denied he had had intercourse with the young woman, who was 30 years his junior. He also denied he had a drinking problem.
The victim claimed that after work she was threatened with a gun and forced to go with her boss to his home in St. Peters, where he violently raped her.
“We drank beers, cooled out there, watched a movie – a little romance, had sex and hugged up,” the suspect told the police during questioning on December 28, 2017.
The Prosecutor’s Office found rape legally and convincingly proven as Robin, who was the victim’s boss, had forced his subordinate to have involuntary sex with him. The Prosecutor also called for a three-year prison sentence.
“Sex crimes are always difficult and delicate,” attorney Geert Hatzmann said in defending his client. He said he did not want to sling mud, but made some critical remarks about the victim’s incriminating statements.
He pointed out that no firearm had been found and said neither the suspect’s DNA or sperm nor any wounds had been found on the victim. The lawyer called for his client’s full acquittal.
The victim filed a report of rape on December 21, 2017. From the beginning she provided consistent and detailed accounts of what had transpired, which gave the Court no reason to doubt her statements.
The Court did not follow Hatzmann in his claim that the findings in the doctor’s report were not incriminating but exculpatory. The doctor may not have found any wounds, but mentioned that the woman had been in pain, the Judge stated in the verdict.
The Court found it legally and convincingly proven that the defendant had abused his position as an employer in “brutally” raping his victim. It was also found proven that he had threatened her life several times, also in preventing her from leaving his house.
The Court said the defendant had breached the victim’s physical integrity and general sense of safety and had not considered the young woman’s vulnerability. All this merited a freedom-depriving punishment, according to the Judge.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/75841-contractor-gets-three-years-for-violent-rape-of-employee
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