Dave Mohammed found not guilty

ST GEORGE’S: Young Trinidadian cricketer Dave Mohammed was found not guilty of rape in the Grenada High Court on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old First-Class cricketer from Princes Town was on trial for an incident last June at a south coast beach where he had been partying at a nearby nightclub during his stint in the country at the Shell West Indies Cricket Academy at the St George’s University.
The six women and three men making up the jury, were divided after their initial deliberations, but returned after an additional hour with a not guilty verdict. The court dismissed all charges. When he appeared in the lower court last year, Chief Magistrate Patricia Mark had ruled that a sufficient case had been made against Mohammed to stand trial. The trial has been going on here for the last month, and Mohammed has spent some of his spare time playing for leading local club GCC, also the team of former West Indies wicket-keeper Junior Murray. The left-arm spinner, who was called up to the West Indies 13-man squad to face South Africa in the Third Test match of the 2001 South Africa tour of the Caribbean, was omitted from the Trinidad and Tobago squad for the current Carib Beer Series 2003. Mohammed, with 34 wickets and a highest score of 52 in 11 First-Class matches, faced the possibility of a 15-year jail sentence if he had been found guilty.