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3 years for indecent assault of child, 3

General3 years for indecent assault of child, 3

Stanwell Bernadez, 23, told the court that he accidentally touched her, but the doctor’s finding said otherwise.

A Belize City man who police charged with aggravated assault of an indecent nature upon a 3-year-old female child pleaded guilty to the offense when he was arraigned before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer this afternoon.

After Stanwell Bernadez, 23, said in a low voice, “I am guilty,” and the court’s prosecutor read the police’s report of the incident, Magistrate Frazer asked Bernadez what he had to say for himself in mitigation.

In the same low, barely audible voice, Bernadez asked the Magistrate if she could give him time to pay.

“Do you think that somebody can do what you allegedly did and just pay a fine?” Frazer asked him.

“I promise I no wan do that again,” Bernadez told the court, “I was playing with the child my hand accidentally touched her.”

The Senior Magistrate told him, “I will ‘accidentally’ give you what the law says.”

Magistrate Frazer explained to him that the amendment to the section of the law under which he has been charged now has a maximum sentence of three years in prison, up from two years.

Frazer then sentenced him to three years, and advised him to “check to find out if there is any counseling up there (at the prison), because that is what you need.”

According to police, the three-year-old and her mother visited one of the city’s police stations and reported that on July 7, her common-law husband allowed a friend to sleep at their home after they had been socializing late into the evening.

The child’s mother told police that around 1:00 a.m., she got out of bed and saw her baby sitting in the sofa. At that time the television set was turned on, so she took the child to her bed.

When daylight came and the child got out of bed, she complained to her mother that Bernadez had touched her on her vagina.

After making the report to police, a medico-legal form was given to the mother, who took her baby to be examined by a doctor.

The doctor certified that the child’s skin showed some signs that it had been tampered with, and her injury was classified as harm.

A statement was recorded from the child, along with her mother, in the presence of a social worker.

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