Thirty year old Richard Russell, who was accused of raping the mother of a 9 month old baby girl, was acquitted of rape today in the court of Justice Herbert Lord.
The trial was aborted after the alleged victim took the witness stand and testified that she does not wish to proceed with the matter before the court.
She gave no reason why she did not want to proceed.
After that, Crown Counsel Sheniza Smith, who represented the prosecution, told the court that the Crown is compelled to offer no further evidence.
Justice Lord then directed the jury of 5 men and 4 women to return a formal verdict of not guilty. The incident is alleged to have occurred between 6:30 and 7 on the evening of September 5, 2008. The victim, who was 16 at the time, reported to the police that she was walking on Simon Lamb Street, between Freetown Road and Kelly Street, when she claimed a car drove up alongside her and a man pulled her into the car.
She said she was driven to a green house on Antelope Street Extension where she was raped. Russel was not represented by an attorney.
