By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A 24-year-old man was acquitted yesterday by a Supreme Court jury of an alleged rape on Boxing Day 2024 involving a 19-year-old woman with whom he had a prior sexual relationship.
Denaveo Sweeting, 24, was in court as the jury returned a 7–2 not guilty verdict after just over an hour of deliberations at the close of his rape trial before Justice Renae McKay.
Sweeting was accused of raping the teenage complainant at her New Providence residence on December 26, 2024.
Defence attorney David Cash thanked the jury on behalf of his client following the verdict.
After Justice McKay informed Sweeting that he had been acquitted and was free to go, Sweeting asked whether the restraining order against the complainant could remain in place.
During the trial, the defence said the complainant and the defendant had what was described as a ‘meet up and grind’ relationship. The defence also acknowledged that the defendant was in relationships with two women prior to the alleged incident.
They said the complainant initiated sexual contact on the day of the alleged incident.
While the defendant admitted to a sexual act, he said the act was consensual.
Sweeting said he did not have vaginal intercourse with the complainant that day, explaining that he left after the sexual act because he was afraid she would tell his girlfriend.
Sweeting also denied the complainant’s claim that he had given her or his girlfriend a sexually transmitted disease.
Mr Cash described the complainant as vindictive and dangerous, with an unhealthy relationship with the truth. The defence also submitted that there was no physical evidence of sexual assault produced at trial, noting that the complainant’s report was made outside the 72-hour window for collecting biological evidence.
The complainant alleged that the defendant went to her home unannounced on the afternoon of the incident. Once inside, she claimed he removed the towel from her body and choked her against a wall. She alleged that he then assaulted her, bent her over a couch, and raped her.
She claimed that after he was finished he told her, “I got what I wanted.”
Prior to the alleged rape, the complainant confronted the defendant at his workplace after learning that he had a girlfriend. She claimed that she later moved on and let the defendant go.
She said that if she had wanted to have sex with the defendant that day, she would have called him.
Erica Ingraham and Vashti Bridgewater appeared on behalf of the prosecution.
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