A Sandys man was yesterday convicted of sexually touching and invading the privacy of a young girl when he appeared in Magistrates’ Court.

However, the defendant, 39 year-old Shuja Amon Muhammad was found not guilty of a second count of sexually touching the same girl.

The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she was just 11-years-old when the first incident occurred in 2010.

She told the court that Muhammad had taken her and her brother on a rented boat to a shipwreck.

While her brother was looking into the water, she said Muhammad placed his hand inside of her bikini bottoms.

When she objected, Muhammad allegedly said: “Don’t be scared because nothing is going to happen and you’re not going to get in trouble.”

She alleged that a second incident occurred weeks later in a swimming pool at the 9 Beaches Resort.

She testified that she and her family were swimming with the defendant when he approached her and again slid his hand into her bathing suit bottoms.

However, while the victim and prosecutors alleged the incident happened in 2010, the court heard from management at the resort that the pool was drained in late 2009 and never refilled.

The third incident allegedly occurred in 2012 when Muhammed came to the victim’s home.

She told the court that she was walking to the bathroom when the defendant grabbed her and attempted to kiss her on her lips.

On that occasion, she said she was able to break free and locked herself in her bedroom.

She told the court that she didn’t tell her parents about any of the incidents initially because she was scared.

Muhammad took the stand during the trial, denying all of the charges.

He said the first two incidents were “pretty much impossible”, claiming that the victim’s brother sat between him and the victim while on the boat and the hotel was closed months before second incident allegedly took place.

He also denied the third incident took place, saying while he was often at the victim’s home, he never intruded on her in the manner alleged.

Muhammad said he had no idea why the victim would fabricate such allegations but suggested that either the girl was jealous of her brother or that it was a conspiracy organised by the girl and her mother.

Delivering his judgement yesterday, Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said that while the girl was just 14 years-old when she took the stand, she appeared honest and her story was consistent.

“She had nothing to gain and didn’t appear to be the type of young lady to just make up these allegations against the defendant, who was close to her family,” he said. “(Muhammad’s) assertions that the young complainant was making the allegations out of jealousy or that there’s some sort of conspiracy and her mother were never put to her mother when she was on the stand.”

And while he noted that the second incident couldn’t have occurred in the time period alleged, he said he believed an incident likely did occur at a swimming pool with the defendant.

Mr Tokunbo found Muhammad guilty of one count of touching a girl under the age of 16 for a sexual purpose in connection to the first incident and one count of intruding on the privacy of a young girl in connection to the third.

However, because of the date issue, he said he must find the defendant not guilty on the charge relating to the second incident.

Muhammad was remanded into custody until March for sentencing and a social inquiry report was ordered.