'Obeah man' tricks, rapes student - Woman told she was being followed by duppies

An alleged obeah man was found guilty of raping a young woman when he appeared before the Clarendon Circuit Court yesterday.

A jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict for Baldwin Hyman, 41, who was accused of rape and larceny by trick.

It is alleged that Hyman, who is of a Spur Tree, Manchester, address saw the 22-year-old university student walking along Main Street in May Pen, Clarendon, on September 16, 2016, and called out to her.

When she came closer to him, he told her that he saw two 'duppies' walking behind her and that he could help her to get rid of the spirits. It is also said that he told her that he knew she had been going through a number of difficulties.

The young woman, who was ill for almost a year before meeting Hyman, was convinced that he genuinely wanted to help her.

"She had gone to the doctor and had brain scan done, trying to find out what was wrong with her, but doctors couldn't help her and the church couldn't help her," a source told THE STAR.

After offering to help the woman, Hyman then lured her into his car and told her that he needed some money to buy some things in order to get rid of the duppies that were following her.

Frustrated with her illness, the complainant gave him $4,000. It is said that he went to buy the items and returned a few minutes later.

He then drove her to a secluded area in the community of Glenmuir, May Pen, where he took a bottle of liquid and poured a 'yellowish' substance on to his finger and told her that she needed to take off her clothes.

Believing that obeah was the only other alternative - after doctors and churches could not help her get better - she took off her pants and her underwear, and he inserted the liquid into her vagina. The man reportedly told her that if she did not allow him to have intercourse with her, she would contract HIV by 6 p.m. that same say.

Although she refused, it is said that Hyman kept insisting and had sexual intercourse with the female without her consent.

After he was finished having sex with her, he gave her two bottles with the substance that he had mixed and told her to go home and bathe with it.

Hyman, who has a matter of a similar nature pending in St Elizabeth and was also acquitted of raping another university student in Manchester, is to be sentenced at a later date.