The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

A WOMAN who accused a man of rape told a Supreme Court jury yesterday that he threatened her with a firearm, choked her and sexually assaulted her after offering her a ride to work in March 2023.

The complainant, Lyndie Milien, testified through a Creole interpreter before Justice Jeanine Weech-Gomez and identified Kennedy Ingraham in court as the man she said raped her after taking her to a property in Coral Harbour.

Defence attorney Sonia Timothy-Knowles challenged her account, alleging the encounter was consensual and that Ms Milien fabricated the rape claim after Ingraham refused to pay her $250.

Ms Milien denied those allegations throughout cross-examination.

She told the court she left her Fire Trail Road home on March 20, 2023, and travelled by bus to Bacardi Road, where she left her one-year-old child with a caregiver before heading to work at Solomon’s Fresh Market in Old Fort Bay.

She said Ingraham, who was 40 at the time, stopped and offered her a ride. Although she initially got into the back seat, she said he told her to sit in the front.

Ms Milien said they spoke about her child and work before Ingraham drove to a property in Coral Harbour and asked her to enter a building. She said she refused and stayed in the vehicle.

She testified that he later returned from the house with what appeared to be an immigration jacket before threatening her with a firearm.

Ms Milien alleged that Ingraham climbed over from the driver’s side of the vehicle, pinned her down and sexually assaulted her.

She said she asked for a condom before he allegedly responded, “I'm going to give you another child.”

Ms Milien testified that Ingraham told her he would kill her if she refused to have sex with him. She said she begged him not to kill her because she had a baby.

She said he later dropped her near Fresh Market. She told jurors she recorded the vehicle’s licence plate number and later reported the matter to police.

Ms Milien said she struggled to explain what had happened when she first arrived at a police station because she could not communicate effectively in English. She said she tried to use gestures before she was taken to the Criminal Investigation Department on University Drive.

She testified that she later accompanied police officers to the area where the alleged assault occurred and identified a residence shown in photographs during the trial as the property where Mr Ingraham had taken her.

She also identified photographs of a vehicle and a tattoo she said belonged to her attacker.

Asked whether she recognised the man in the dock, she pointed to Ingraham and identified him as the person who raped her.

During cross-examination, Ms Timothy-Knowles questioned Ms Milien’s ability to identify the Coral Harbour property, noting that she had only been there once before returning with police.

Ms Milien insisted she recognised the residence and pointed it out in photographs shown to the jury.

Ms Timothy-Knowles suggested that Ms Milien had met Ingraham before and that he had previously given her rides.

The attorney further suggested that Ms Milien and Ingraham had arranged to have sex and that she expected payment.

Ms Timothy-Knowles put to Ms Milien that she fabricated the rape allegation after Ingraham refused to pay her $250 and that she tore her own shirt after the encounter.

Ms Milien rejected those claims and denied that the sexual encounter was consensual.

She also denied defence suggestions that Ingraham never had a firearm, never choked her and never covered her mouth.

The allegations stem from an incident prosecutors say occurred on March 20, 2023. Ingraham was charged later that month after police alleged he offered Ms Milien a ride before taking her to a Coral Harbour property and raping her.