_{Glenford Herman Arnold, aka “Blackie”}

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 30, 2025

A 65-year-old man received a prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a boy, 12, in early February of this year.

It is the second time that Glenford Herman Arnold, aka “Blackie”, a resident of a Pickstock Hutment area, has been convicted for sexual assault of a boy.

In 2022 at the age of 62, Arnold was accused of sexual assaulting an 8-year-old boy whose private parts he allegedly groped. He had initially pleaded not guilty to that charge, but in 2023 at the age of 63, Arnold was convicted and was imposed a fine at the end of his trial. Two years later, however, when facing charges for a second alleged act of sexual assault against a boy, he chose to plead guilty to the crime.

Arnold was initially arraigned in connection with the second sexual assault accusation against him on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court, where he was charged with one count of sexual assault, and one count of common assault upon a 12-year-old boy whom he touched inappropriately during an altercation.

The charges followed a report by a neighbor of the victim, who had visited the police station to describe the assault that he witnessed. He had said that in the morning at about 7:45 a.m., while brushing his teeth outside his apartment building, he had heard loud sounds of a commotion coming from the top portion of the apartment, and when he looked up, he saw Arnold pulling a 12-year-old boy whom he knows well.

He said he heard the boy yelling out to Arnold to leave him alone, but Arnold did not let go of the boy’s hand; and that’s when the neighbour said he shouted at Arnold to let go of the boy, but Arnold allegedly refused. And so, he shouted louder at him; and that’s when Arnold let go of the boy, and then went into his room.

But, according to the neighbour, shortly afterwards he saw the boy trying to fix his mother’s broken screen door with a hammer. It was at that point, according to the boy, that Arnold approached him again and asked him if he wanted to have sex with him.

According to the boy, when he rejected Arnold’s advances, Arnold touched him on his chest and his left butt cheek.

When charges were initially brought against Arnold following that report, Arnold had pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, but guilty to common assault, claiming he never touched the boy sexually in any inappropriate manner, but that he did assault him during the altercation; and so, he had been denied bail and remanded to the Belize Central Prison, since he had a previous sexual assault conviction from 2023.

But on a court adjournment this week, Arnold chose to change his not guilty plea for sexual assault to guilty, and was sentenced to 12 months 25 days; and for the common assault, which he had said he was guilty of, he was sentenced to 3 months.

However, since he had been remanded to prison from February, the sitting Magistrate told Arnold that his 3 months for common assault was time served. He thus has 12 months 25 days left to serve in prison for the sexual assault of the boy.