By Elesha George
The trial of a man who’s accused of luring a gay man to a beach under the pretence of a sexual favour and then brutally attacked the victim began in the High Court on Monday.
Due to the sensitivity of the case, the names of both individuals have been withheld. The accused is facing charges of attempted murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Justice Tunde Bakre presided over the case, with a jury of four men and eight women selected to deliberate on the facts presented. Paulio Williams is representing the Crown, while attorney Michael Archibald is defending the accused.
In his opening citation to the jurors, Williams cautioned them to keep their bias and prejudices outside of the court, especially since the case involved sexual allegations of a still unlawful nature. “The trial is not about homosexuality,” he urged.
The victim was the first witness called to testify against the accused, recounting the details of the January 6, 2020 encounter.
He detailed how he first met the accused through a mutual friend in 2018 and occasionally kept in contact with him via Facebook and WhatsApp. Over time, the accused had asked him to purchase several items, including football gloves and an iPhone earpiece, and also requested driving lessons. Eventually, he asked for a $100 loan to open a bank account, promising to repay it within a week. However, after failing to do so, he offered to engage in “sexual intercourse” as compensation. According to the victim, the accused later requested an additional $120 for the act, which he declined.
On the night of the attack, the victim said they had arranged to meet at 7 pm, but he was delayed because he was assisting his cousin with her School-Based Assessment. Despite his attempt to reschedule, the accused insisted that they meet that same night. At around 9 pm, the victim drove to Greenbay to pick up the accused, who was already waiting on a street corner. Following the accused’s instructions, they proceeded to an isolated area in Five Islands.
Once there, the accused asked the victim to remove his clothing. The victim complied, removing his pants and underwear, and questioned whether the act should take place inside or outside the vehicle. They ultimately decided on the back seat of the car, where the victim knelt down with the accused behind him.
“I going to deal with you rough like a girl I used to go round,” the victim recalled the accused saying.
Moments later, the accused grabbed him by the hair, tilted his head forward, and did so two more times before slapping him once on the buttocks. The victim then felt a sharp object slice across his throat.
Startled, he pushed against the accused and tried to escape the vehicle, but the accused continued stabbing him. The victim sustained multiple wounds to his upper thigh, shoulder, lower back, elbow, and right calf.
“I started shouting murder, murder, murder,” he told the court.
Outside the vehicle, the victim continued to evade further attempts by the accused to stab him. He pleaded with the accused to release the knife, promising not to report the incident. The accused refused, allegedly saying, “Let go off my mother’s knife before I take out the other one.”
A struggle ensued until the victim managed to wrest the brown-handled kitchen knife from the accused’s grasp. The accused then fled the scene.
The victim, despite his injuries, stumbled into his vehicle and drove toward Mount St John’s Medical Centre. He stopped briefly on the roadside to put his clothes back on but collapsed. Eventually, he made it to the hospital, where nurses rushed him to the emergency room. He later underwent surgery and remained hospitalized for a week.
During his testimony, the victim said he had noticed a knife at the accused’s waist when he first knelt in the vehicle but assumed it was for “protection”.
The trial is set to continue today with the cross-examination of the first witness by the defense. A total of eight witnesses are expected to testify.