By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN accused of taking part in the gang rape of a 14-year-old girl in an unfinished building on Wulff Road was acquitted after a jury returned a not guilty verdict yesterday.

Cleveland McPhee, who faced a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse, was cleared by a 7–2 jury decision before Justice Jeannine Weech-Gomez. The judge told him he was free to go after the verdict was delivered.

Prosecutors alleged that the victim, now 21, was attacked by several men on the night of June 25, 2018. She told the court she had been walking to a convenience store when, after learning it was closed, she took shelter from the rain in a half-finished building nearby.

Inside, she said she was accosted by a group of men. She testified that she tried to defend herself with a shovel before being forced into a storage room, where a man she knew as “CJ” allegedly raped her along with another male. She said a third man groped her while two others stood laughing as the assault ended.

The complainant said she managed to escape and ran to a nearby police station to report the attack.

During the trial, the defence highlighted inconsistencies in her account, arguing that she initially told police she did not know her attackers before later identifying one of them in court.

A doctor who examined the complainant testified that she had bruising and vaginal bleeding consistent with traumatic sex. However, forensic evidence weakened the prosecution’s case: a DNA analysis of a condom recovered from the scene showed that McPhee’s DNA was not present, although the complainant’s was.

Nathan Smith represented McPhee, while Desiree Ferguson and Tanisha Forbes prosecuted the case.