Webster has ‘no memory’ of videoed indecent act

(CNS): A jury heard that Errington Webster told police he had no recollection of committing an act of gross indecency filmed by a teenage girl in his truck that triggered an indecent assault investigation against the former firefighter and one-time political hopeful. Webster was arrested last summer and charged with three counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency against the 13-year-old. He appeared in court Monday, when his trial opened before a jury of five women and two men, who were shown the video evidence as the crown set out its case.

Crown prosecutor Darlene Oko opened the case by explaining that the teenager has accused Webster of indecently assaulting her on three previous occasions before she videoed him masturbating in front of her on the last time before his arrest. The jury heard that the teenager told police that Webster had given her hundreds of dollars, bought her clothes and an iPhone 6, but the 54-year-old man had asked her for sexual favours in return.

Webster, who is represented by local defence attorney Steve McField, has denied the allegations and has pleaded not guilty to all four charges.

In her statements to the police, the girl said that she first met Webster, who lives in Bodden Town, when she was just ten years old as he was a neighbour. Several years later, when she had just turned 13, he began taking a close interest in her and asked for her phone number at a family fun day event. 

Oko told the jury that the teenager said Webster began calling and texting her, and eventually began talking about her being his girlfriend and wanted to have sex a few months after the family fun day. The first time that he indecently assaulted her, according to the teenager, was at his home in April 2016, when he asked her to visit.

In her evidence to police, she said she had gone over to Webster’s house with her younger brother, who was playing video games while Webster indecently assaulted her by performing oral sex on her in his daughter’s bedroom. When she asked him to stop he did and then gave her $500, the court heard.

On the second occasion he offered to take her to eat something but instead drove her down a quiet bushy road, where he indecently assaulted her in the car when he took off her bra before fondling and kissing her breasts.

On the third occasion he promised her an iPhone if she gave him sex, and again he took her down the country road. But the teenager told the police that she refused to have sex with him. Although he took off her underpants and touched her vagina, after a short time he said he felt guilty and stopped. He took her home and gave her the phone some time later.

On the fourth occasion, when the teenager recorded Webster masturbating, she said he had asked her to go to George Town with him to run errands. He went to the bank first and took out $300 from an ATM, which was recorded on the bank’s security camera, and then took her to Wendy’s for food.

The court heard that afterwards, according to the girl, he bought her over $200 worth of clothes in the West Bay Road store, J. Michael’s. On the way home, she said, he began masturbating in the car.

He once again drove to the same secluded bushy road, where he asked her to give him something for all the clothes he bought her, but she refused to have sex. He urged her to spit on his penis as he masturbated, which eventually she did. The girl told police that she then pretended to take a call from her mother, as she began filming Webster.

Eventually, because she did not want to be there, she told him she had to go because her mother was asking for her. She said that as she left him he told her he wanted to have a child with her and when she refused, he became angry.

When she got home, she told her sister and a friend about what was happening with Webster and about the video but she was afraid to tell her mother. However, a few weeks later a chain of events was set in motion when another friend saw the video and made a copy. The teenager’s friend then showed the recording to another adult connected to the family, who then in turn went to the teenage girl’s mother. She reported the incident to the police.

Several weeks after she filmed Webster she had her first interview with police officers, where she told them about the other three occasions. She also told the police that she wanted the things Webster bought her and the money but she did not want to do the things he wanted her to do. The girl revealed that Webster would often text and call her, telling her she was his girl and he loved her. She claimed that Webster told her she could not have a boyfriend as she was exclusively his girl but they could not see each other very often.

Although Webster denied all of the teenager’s allegations during interviews after his arrest, the crown prosecutor said he admitted giving her money and that he had bought her clothes at J. Michael’s during a shopping trip, where she had also come along with a friend.

But after she gave over her phones to the police, they found 1,149 text messages sent by him to the girl, as well as calls. The prosecutor said the messages reveal how Webster was “fixed” on the teenage victim and frequently called her “his girl” and commented on the fact that she was so young. During police interviews, Webster reportedly admitted knowing the girl was only around 13 or 14 years old.

When confronted with the video, Webster claimed to have no memory of committing the act and said that he had no recollection of the events on the film. He said that when they were driving home that day, he felt a pain in his neck and wondered if the teenager had “jugged” him. But he said the next thing he remembered was coming around on the floor of his own car port, as he implied that heart medication he was taking combined with grapefruit juice may have caused him to black out.

The trial continues.