Father of three, guilty of sexual offences on a 7-yr-old girl

Patrick Squires, a father of three, was yesterday found guilty of sexual offences against a seven-year-old girl by a nine-member jury in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court. He will be sentenced on Friday. Squires, a 45-year-old carpenter, was charged with having sex with a female under the age of 14 and buggery at Enterprise, on a day unknown in August 1999. The jury of seven men and two women deliberated for one hour and a half before relaying the guilty verdict to Justice Pamela Elder. State prosecutor Kathy-Ann Waterman presented evidence that the girl was sent by her mother to spend a week at Squires, a close family friend, in August 1999. Both Squires and the child’s mother were friends for 12 years prior to the incident. It was during the visit that Squires entered the girl’s room naked one night where he raped and then buggered her. When the girl returned home on August 28, 1999, she did not tell anyone about the incident as she was so instructed by Squires. However, shortly after, the girl’s mother observing her with coconut oil on her hands, asked the girl what she was doing.

The girl did not reply causing her mother to hit her once across her shoulder with a purse strap. The child then told her that the oil was to rub on her vagina. The mother asked how did she know to do that and it was then the girl told her what had occurred. The mother then took the child to the Chaguanas Police Station where a report was made to PC Kelvin Rajkumar. The defence claimed that the incident never occurred, and that it was fabricated. They alleged that the child’s mother saw the girl playing with herself and forced her to say that Squires had raped her, as the girl had recently returned from his house. Defence attorney Nathaniel King told the judge that Squires had been in jail since he committed the offence in 1999. He said Squires had children and he asked for leniency in the length of the jail term. Elder indicated that she would sentence the prisoner on Friday. Squires was then remanded in custody.