A 24-year-old man who posed as a child on social media to befriend and groom a 13-year-old girl before molesting, assaulting and raping her has been convicted by a Grand Court jury.
A court order prevents the Cayman Compass from releasing his identity.
The man listened in silence Monday as the foreman returned unanimous guilty verdicts against him for charges of sexual communications with a child, meeting a child after sexual communications, indecent assault, gross indecency and rape.
The George Town man, originally from the UK, arrived in Cayman five years ago. Shortly after, he began conversing with the child on Snapchat, a social media app that allows users to automatically delete their messages, photos and videos once they’ve been sent.
In her opening remarks, Crown counsel Sarah Lewis told the jury of five women and two men that the defendant used Snapchat to groom the girl.
“Students use this app to help prevent their parents from finding out what they have been up to,” Lewis said. “For this reason, it is also popular for persons with criminal motives because the messages disappear.”
During the trial, lasting more than two weeks, the court heard that the defendant and the girl exchanged more than 2,000 messages. Some of these included nude images of both parties and videos of the defendant performing lewd acts on himself.
From the trial’s inception, the defendant accepted that he had sexually explicit conversations with the child, claiming that he believed she was 17 years old and turning 18. He also accepted some degree of sexual contact, but claimed it was initiated by the complainant. He denied raping her.
After deliberating for approximately 45 minutes, the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on all five charges.
Upon hearing the verdicts, the defendant sobbed silently with his head lowered, before being remanded into custody.
A victim impact report has been ordered, and the preliminary sentencing hearing has been set for September.
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