NASSAU, The Bahamas — The lawyer for a 53-year-old Jamaican has hinted at appealing the two year jail sentence imposed on her client by a magistrate’s court after he was found guilty of touching his 15-year-old stepdaughter’s genitals on two occasions.

The man had faced the potential of the maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment after Assistant Chief Magistrate, Carolyn Vogt-Evans, found him guilty of two counts of indecent assault.

His stepdaughter alleged that the incidents took place at the family’s inner-city New Providence home in February and March 2022. She said the incidents left her torn because her stepfather, who had been with her mother since she was two, was the only father she had known.

She said on one occasion, she was in her parents’ bedroom when he allegedly put his hands in her tights and touched her genitals. She said he touched her genitals the second time in the hallway as she exited the bathroom.

The teen reported the inappropriate touches to her sister, mother and a cousin and the matter was reported to the police.

The man’s attorney, Linda Virgill, suggested that the teenager had deliberately dressed provocatively to entice him. But the magistrate rubbished this defence, and said even if this were the case, the teen could not consent to the sexual touches.

The mother said when she confronted her husband about the incidents, he told her he was “only playing with her daughter”.

In his testimony, the man denied the allegations and that he considered his stepdaughter as his own child.