A St. George’s University medical student has been exonerated from two (2) indictable sex charges – defilement of a young female between the ages of 13 and 16 and permitting the defilement of a young female.
23-year old Joshua Okoronkwo, a Nigerian medical student, was mere weeks away from completing medical school, when the charge was slapped against him in July of 2018.
Since then the accused was held at her Majesty’s Prison, before a ‘not guilty’ verdict was delivered by a Jury at the number 1 high court today.
Attorney Derek Sylvester did brief members of the media on the outcome but opted not to get into the facts surrounding the trial due to its sensitive nature.
He told the media that the jury, after listening to the evidence and six witnesses from the prosecution, including 1 doctor, three police officers, the mother and the complainant, as well as unsworn evidence from the accused man, the verdict returned was ‘Not Guilty’.
Sylvester said his client was not open for cross-examination after giving unsworn evidence.
The attorney also took objection to what he described as a discriminatory provision of the law, where the reasonable belief that the person is above age is not a consideration as a defense.
Now that Okoronkwo is exonerated from all charges he is expected to complete medical school.
