BELIZE CITY, Fri. Nov. 13, 2015–A Lords Bank resident who is also a single father of two children will be spending two years in prison after being found guilty this morning of sexual assault upon a minor.

At the end of his trial today, Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser found Lionel Quiroz, 31, guilty of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl.

On November 8, 2014, the child alleged that she was heading to her home in Lords Bank when Quiroz met her in the vicinity of the basketball court.

The child told the court in her en camera testimony that Quiroz hugged her and then fondled her buttocks.

Quiroz, however, in his defense told the court that the child could not have been referring to him, because on the day of the incident, he was not even in Lords Bank, so it couldn’t have been he who fondled the child. Quiroz insisted that he was in Biscayne at the time.

On one of the adjournment dates, Quiroz brought his two children to court as proof that he is a single parent.

In imposing the two-year sentence, Magistrate Fraser told Quiroz that as a single father, he needs to set a proper example for his children and be a role model for them.

Therefore, he should not have been caught in a position where a child had to make that kind of report about him.

Fraser also told him that the evidence that the child presented in court against him was overwhelming, and that his alibi did not negate the evidence of the child.