Apr 15 - Child Rape Trial Update: Whitfield Takes The Stand
A man facing allegations of sexually abusing and raping an 11-year-old girl took the stand this morning at the Supreme Court.
The third day of an ongoing child rape trial started with Kevin Norman Whitfield, the defendant, facing questions from his legal representative David Dumas, QC. The trial is examining historical allegations that Whitfield sexually abused his partner’s daughter during an eight-month period in 1999.
When Mr Dumas asked his client to respond to these allegations, Whitfield emphatically denied that any sexual abuse or rape had taken place either while he lived in the family home in Vineyards or later when the family moved to the UK.
“Nothing happened…it’s not true,” he said.
Whitfield rejected the claim that he would enter the 11-year-old’s bedroom both early in the morning when he came back from nightshifts as a GDP officer and at night before going to bed, and subject the girl to forced oral sex and rape.
“Nothing happened in any way, shape or form,” he said.
Under cross-examination by the Attorney General, Ricky Rhoda QC, Whitfield said he had been “horrified” when he received a detailed letter from the complainant years later accusing him of sexually abusing her.
Referring to previous evidence that the 11-year-old girl had lost weight and started vomiting frequently during the period of the alleged abuse, Mr Rhoda said: “The reason her health deteriorated was because of things you were doing to her.”
Whitfield replied that he had thought at the time that the girl, whom he treated like his stepdaughter, was suffering from anorexia.
The trial continues this afternoon and is expected to end before the end of this week.
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