Indecent Assaults: Cleared of one, but guilty of another

Tuesday 29 January 2019

A young man has been cleared of one charge of indecent assault after facing a trial in Guernsey's Royal Court, but he still has to be sentenced for another indecent assault which he'd already pleaded guilty to.

Carl Halker, 19, had argued the assault he'd admitted was not as serious as was being alleged, so it was left to the court to decide what had happened in the first instance, and whether the second allegation had happened at all.

Yesterday, the nine jurats sitting over the case found Halker not guilty of the second indecent assault he'd been accused of by a margin of eight to one. They also decided the sentence for the first charge will be based on his story of events, rather than the prosecution's facts. That's because, as with all criminal trials, the burden of proof was on the prosecution - who had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the charges and their facts were accurate. The Judge and Jurats decided that, in this case, they did not. 

The defendant will now be sentenced in March for the assault he did commit.

That had happened during Summer 2017 when Halker was at a friend's flat with a teenage girl watching TV and listening to music. The flat owner then needed to go to work. The pair walked to another friend's property to continue their evening, and when they arrived, they sat together on a mattress in the bedroom. It was then that Halker put his hand on the girl's thigh under the covers. He moved it toward her crotch, and when their friend left the room to get changed, Halker started touching the victim indecently.

Halker has been remanded in custody until his sentencing date. He has been in custody for some time. 

Halker told the court he had touched her over her trousers for around 40 seconds, and then put his hand inside her trousers and continued to touch her, skin on skin, for around two minutes. He said the girl had given him permission, however when giving evidence in the trial she said she had tried to move away from Halker but froze, so had not said anything to him at all. 

Despite that, she couldn't consent to this legally because of her age, so Halker entered a guilty plea. The two parties also both agreed they had kissed each other earlier in the evening.

During that part of the court hearing, Halker admitted he was a "tactile" person, who regularly smacks friend's bottoms and touches their breasts, but he said this was always as a joke. Every witness who was called to take the stand told the court this was the case. 

The victim of the assault had also been subjected to this behaviour in the past, but was still friends with the defendant. On this occasion though, she said she felt uncomfortable around him, and that he was staring at her. 

Halker was totally cleared of the second charge, which the court decided had not ever happened.

The sentencing for the first count of indecent assault will take place in March.