He was reportedly on the run for 5 months before handing himself in to police

A businessman from the Cayo District – who, according to authorities, had been on the run for over five months – is now on remand at the Belize Central Prison after he turned himself in to San Ignacio police last Tuesday, May 20, at around midday, pending charges of carnal knowledge.

Police reported that Aaron Elijah Juan, 33, who lives on Burns Avenue in San Ignacio, surrendered himself to police in that municipality in the company of his attorney, Richard “Dickie” Bradley.

Juan was wanted based on a December 18, 2013 carnal knowledge report involving a 15-year-old female minor who had accused him of engaging in sexual intercourse with her.

He appeared in the San Ignacio Magistrate’s Court, where Magistrate Narda Morgan read him the charge; however, no plea was taken, since it is an indictable offense which will be heard at the Supreme Court level.

Juan was remanded to prison until August 14, 2014.

In August of 2005, three British students, ages 15, 16 and 19, who were doing volunteer work in the Cayo District and staying at a lodge in Georgeville, had alleged that Juan – who was the son of the lodge owner and a tour guide at the time – had raped them after he had enticed them with rum and entered their cabin uninvited.

In January 2006, after being on the run for months, Juan – who was 24 years old at the time – turned himself in to police. He told police that the young women were aggressive and they practically demanded that he engage in sexual acts with them.

Still, he was charged with two counts of rape and one count of carnal knowledge.

Six years later, in February of 2012, two of the females filed a lawsuit against their former school at a British High Court in London on the premise that not enough was done to protect them by teachers and ex-military guardians who were there to look after their security.

That case was later dismissed after the judge ruled that the teachers were not to blame, given that they could not have anticipated the alleged attack, since the tour guide did not have any previous criminal record at that time and because the teachers had done routine check-ups on the students during their stay at the ranch.