Sitting behind the wheel of his jeep, Garfield Anderson reached into the back seat and groped the thigh of a 16-year-old girl to whom he had offered a ride, prosecutors said.
Mr. Anderson, 39, of Horse Path, pleaded not guilty to indecent assault in Magistrates’ Court Tuesday.
On the afternoon of Dec. 29, 2012, the alleged victim was walking home from school when Mr. Anderson stopped his white Suzuki jeep to offer her a ride, Senior Crown Counsel Valston Graham told the court.
“This is not the first time he did so,” the prosecutor added. “The defendant is known to the complainant and her family.”
Once in the moving car, Mr. Anderson began saying inappropriate things, according to the allegations: He told her that he “liked her breasts” and that he “wanted them in his mouth,” Mr. Graham said.
After asking the alleged victim if she was sexually active, Mr. Anderson “stretched his hand back and proceeded to rub and touch her thigh under her skirt,” the prosecutor added.
The incident was reported to a school guidance counsellor and then to the police. After his arrest, Mr. Anderson admitted that his hand had come into contact with the alleged victim’s thigh, but said it happened accidentally, Mr. Graham told the court.
The defendant, a construction worker and native of Jamaica who has lived in the territory since 2001, is currently on bail.
“He is a man previously of good character,” said his attorney, Patricia Archibald-Bowers.
A trial date was set for April 10.