A Supreme Court jury on Friday unanimously acquitted a 23-year-old man of the rape of an eight-year-old girl he was babysitting.
Prosecutors alleged that Afream Brown, then 18, molested the child in January 2022, when she and her brother spent the weekend at their grandmother’s New Providence home.
Brown, described as a trusted family friend, watched the children often.
The child did not alert anyone about the alleged sexual assault.
When the alleged victim returned her home two days after the alleged incident, her mother told her to bathe.
The mother became alarmed when she allegedly saw blood stains in her daughter’s underwear.
The mother also allegedly saw tenderness around her daughter’s genitals.
She questioned her daughter about who had assaulted her, and the girl eventually implicated Brown.
The mother testified that she threw away the soiled underwear before the matter was reported to the police
Brown did not testify or call any witnesses at his trial before Acting Justice Roberto Reckley.
The only evidence linking him to the crime was the testimony of the now 13-year-old girl.
Brown’s lawyers Cassie Bethell and Tamika Roberts suggested that the sexual assault took place after the child left his care.
Krisstin Butler-Beneby was the prosecutor.
