The silence in the courtroom was almost deafening on Monday at High Court, but when the jury returned a unanimous decision of guilty on two counts of rape, it echoed bells in one man’s ears.{{more}}

The 41-year-old mason of Ottley Hall was sentenced to 12 years behind bars by presiding Judge Gertel Thom as the Criminal Assizes continued.

He was convicted of raping his stepdaughter between January 1, 2004, and April 1, 2004.

In the young girl’s testimony to the Court, she said that the first incident occurred when she came home from school one day and went into her bedroom to change her school clothes. The teen said her stepfather came into the room and asked “for a piece of sex.”

“I can’t give you sex because you’re my stepfather,” she said she told him. The girl said he grabbed her by the hand and started beating her, then raped her despite her repetitious cries of “no, no”.

She said the second time he raped her was March, while her mother was in the hospital.

She said that she was lying on the bed when she heard the accused send her younger siblings to the shop to buy chicken. The two of them were alone in the house and he told her he wanted sex. As she did on the first occasion, she said she told him no.

“I does give you money for school and you can’t give me a piece of sex?” she said the defendant told her.

She said he went outside and returned with a cutlass and threatened to kill her. She said he had sex with her and after told her that she was ungrateful, that he wanted nothing to do with her and never to ask him for any money again for school.

The teen told the Court that she did not tell anyone about the matter until a year after because she was afraid of him.

However, the man denied the girl’s allegations and testified that he was never at home at the any of the times she said the incidents occurred as he had been working.

Justice Thom chided Edwards for his actions and told him that he betrayed his stepdaughter. “Her mother left her in your care and you took advantage of her,” Thom said.