By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN testified yesterday that the mother of his child told him in 2022 that her stepfather had sex with her and would not stop touching her.

Shawn Buchanan gave evidence in the trial of Yuel Major, 58, before Justice Joyann Ferguson. Major is charged with two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a person suffering from a mental disorder and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors allege that Major had sex with a woman suffering from a mental disorder and assaulted her with a knife sometime in May 2022. He is further accused of having sex with her again on June 5 2022.

Mr Buchanan said that on June 5, 2022, he visited the complainant’s residence and brought her food. He said she appeared angry, and he was trying to calm her down. He said she told him the defendant was always touching her and that she was tired of it. He said she also told him that the defendant had sex with her.

Mr Buchanan said the complainant confided in him about the alleged abuse, saying “he always (expletive) me”, and that she asked him to make it stop.

He said he advised her to report the matter to the police. Although she was afraid to go to the station, he said he had given a statement to the officers.

Under cross-examination by defence attorney Jairam Mangra, Mr Buchanan said the complainant had difficulty communicating. He said she received low grades in school and described her as slow. He said she became frustrated when too many people spoke to her at once.

Mr Buchanan said he has a child with the complainant and had worked with her before. He said his relationship with the defendant had been fine until the allegations emerged.

He said he never confronted the defendant about the alleged abuse because he believed it was not his place. He said that, to his knowledge, the complainant did tell her family about the alleged abuse.

Mr Buchanan acknowledged that he never saw the defendant having sex with the complainant but maintained that she told him the accused had sex with her a couple of times. He said he believed she began staying with him more frequently to escape the alleged abuse and that she complained about the defendant multiple times, saying the incidents happened at her home.

He said the complainant never told him the defendant used a weapon to force sex. He said he took her to hospital once for an injured wrist but that she never explained how it happened. He said he never saw any cuts to her hands.

Although he said the complainant told him the abuse occurred when he was not present, he also said he would not be surprised if she later claimed he was there when it happened.

Rashied Edgecombe prosecuted the case.