16 PILLS – Minor vaguely knows who impregnates her

A man and a woman were hauled before the Magistrate’s Court yesterday for allegedly administering a number of pills to a 14-year-old girl to terminate her pregnancy.

Based on allegations, the two accused caused the minor to suffer a miscarriage.

The duo is charged with procuring a poison or noxious thing to be used to procure a miscarriage, and administering a poison or noxious thing with intent to procure a miscarriage.

The court has ordered that their names not be published so as to protect the identity of the minor.

As BVI News Online reported before the charges were laid, the 42-year-old accused man is a relative of the minor.

Met him at party

The court heard that a young man living in the neighbouring US Virgin Islands impregnated the minor.

The minor told authorities that she does not know the young man’s name, adding that she met him at a party and they had sexual encounters a few times after.

She found out that she was pregnant in May last year when she visited a clinic with her mother.

Further allegations are that the man who assisted with the miscarriage was informed about the minor’s pregnancy, and he became upset.

He subsequently sought the assistance of his female co-accused, who the court heard was a ‘family friend’.

Further allegations are that, on May 6 last year, the 43-year-old woman visited the child’s residence with two boxes of pills.

She reportedly gave the child instructions on how to consume the pills to facilitate the miscarriage.

The teen received one set of pills to take every two hours on the day the adult woman visited.

The woman, who is a native of the Commonwealth of Dominica, allegedly gave the minor another set of pills the following day to take twice daily.

The court heard that the minor was given a total of 16 pills. However, it is reported that she only ingested 12 because they were making her sick.

Sickness and bleeding

The minor experienced bleeding for days, causing her to be out of school for approximately two weeks.

The authorities got whiff of the incident months later because of an unrelated matter.

Law enforcers accosted the minor’s accused relative in May this year and cautioned him. He reportedly told police: “I ain’t do nothing like that.” He was arrested.

The man denied the allegations during a subsequent police interview. According to the prosecution, he claimed that he indeed informed his co-accused about the minor’s pregnancy. He further told police that his co-accused later visited the minor’s residence.

The man claimed that he is unaware of what transpired between the woman and the pregnant minor on the day of the visit.

Contradictory stories

Meanwhile, the court was told that police also approached the woman in May this year in relation to the incident. She reportedly denied knowledge of it.

In an interview, the woman allegedly told the cops that she did not know about the pregnancy. She also claimed that she did not visit the pregnant minor on the day in question.

In court, Senior Magistrate Tamia Richards granted both accused $70,000 bail.

The senior magistrate told the man, who is a British Virgin Islander, not to harass the minor. The woman, on the other hand, was told to stay away from the minor and report to the Road Town Police Station three days per week.

The accused duo is being represented by attorney-at-law Stephen Daniels, and will return to court on September 29.