Man charged for touching passenger

A St Catherine man has been charged with indecent assault by the Bog Walk police after he allegedly ran his hands up and down one of the legs of a woman, who, like him, was a passenger in a taxi.

The man, Dean Mohan, 19, labourer of Ensom City in Spanish Town, has been charged with indecent assault.

Reports are that about 4:50 p.m. on Wednesday, Mohan, who is said to be originally from Westmoreland, boarded a Toyota Probox motor car, which operates as a taxi in Linstead. The car was heading to Bog Walk. It is alleged that along the journey, he began to touch a female passenger, who was also in the back seat.

"Mi hear when him seh mi have something fi show you," the taxi operator related to THE WEEKEND STAR. "Then mi hear, 'Oh my God!'," the driver said.

The incident occurred just as the car was approaching a crime scene on the Bog Walk main road, in the vicinity of Pineapple Lane. The driver said that he brought the car to a stop at the feet of police and soldiers who were at the scene.

"Mi stop and di soldier and police hold him," the driver said.

Curious onlookers who converged on the scene as Mohan was being taken into custody, expressed shock and dismay when they heard the allegations.

"This very serious," one woman lamented as the tearful victim was being escorted to the police station. "Can you imagine that happened in a public passenger vehicle, in broad daylight?"

Mohan, who was taken into custody on Wednesday, was charged yesterday with the offence of indecent assault. The maximum penalty for indecent assault is a sentence of imprisonment of 15 years. However, sentencing guidelines prescribe a normal range of between three to 10 years.