By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A MAN was acquitted on Thursday for the alleged sexual assault of a woman he gave a ride to work in western New Providence in 2023, an act the defense called consensual “lovemaking”.
Kennedy Ingraham was found not guilty of rape in a 6-3 jury verdict before Justice Jeannine Weech-Gomez.
Justice Weech-Gomez informed Ingraham that he was free to go as long as he had no other matters before the court.
The visibly relieved defendant gave the Justice a polite nod before leaving the court a free man.
Prosecutors alleged that Ingraham raped a 36-year-old woman, whose name is being withheld, after giving her a ride in western New Providence around 9am on March 20, 2023.
The defendant was alleged to have taken the woman to a residence in Coral Harbour, where the assault allegedly occurred in his car.
Afterwards, he allegedly drove the woman to her job at a grocery store.
The defence has claimed that the sex was consensual and transactional. It further claimed the complainant fabricated the allegation after Ingraham failed to pay her the $250 they had allegedly agreed on beforehand.
During her closing address, defense attorney Sonia Timothy Knowles said that while sexual intercourse did occur, it was a consensual act of “lovemaking”.
The prosecution had claimed that the defendant had raped the complainant at gunpoint and choked her. They also claimed the defendant used an immigration uniform to intimidate the complainant, a Haitian national, prior to the alleged sexual assault.
Indiana Fitzgerald and Crystal Stuart also represented the accused.
Shaneka Carey and Betty Wilson prosecuted the case.
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