NASSAU- A bus driver paid a $200 fine on Friday to avoid spending one month in prison for indecently assaulting a teenager he was taking to school.
Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister found Dennis Clarke guilty of the indecent assault of the 14-year-old girl.
According to the prosecution, the C V Bethel High School student and her father boarded Clarke’s bus on the morning of October 7, 2019 at Soldier Road.
The girl’s father got off the bus soon after, leaving his daughter to continue her journey to school.
Before he drove off, Clarke turned to the girl, who was seated behind him, and said, “You pretty bey.” Then he put his hand under skirt and rubbed towards her upper thigh, the court heard.
The girl pushed Clarke’s hand away without saying anything. However, as she was about to get off the bus she told Clarke that she was going to tell her father what he had done.
The girl told a relative who works at her school about the incident, which was reported to the East Street South Police Station.
While they were there, Clarke showed up at the station. Clarke came to make a complaint against the girl’s father, who on hearing about the alleged assault, boarded his bus and hit him with a cellphone.
The officers arrested Clarke without taking his complaint.
Clarke denied inappropriately touching the student during his trial.
Magistrate Armbrister said he was satisfied that the girl was telling the truth during her testimony.
Clarke’s lawyer Allan Emmanuel asked the court to be as lenient as possible and not impose a prison sentence.
The unmarried father-of-one now works as a taxi driver, Emmanuel said.
According to him, Clarke lived with his mother and was the sole breadwinner of the home.