ST. JOHN'S, Antigua (1 Nov 2002) -- A teenage girl who gave a videotaped interview accusing Prime Minister Lester Bird of having sex with her filed a lawsuit Thursday charging the island's leader with statutory rape, abduction, conspiracy and sexual assault. Bird, who was cleared last week by a government-ordered investigation on the basis of lack of evidence, is being sued along with his younger brother, Ivor Bird, said Beverly Percival, a secretary in the prime minister's office. Monique Kim Barua, who was 12 at the time of the alleged incidents, charges in her lawsuit that the prime minister sexually assaulted her between June 2000 and July 2001 in the northeast village of Parham, according to the suit. Bird said he rejected the lawsuit's claims, saying again that he had never met the girl. "I'm not surprised. I'm not worried," Bird said, adding that the charges "cannot be sustained." Barua, who is now 15, filed the suit jointly with her mother, Jacqueline Fiedtkou, in the High Court of Justice of Antigua and Barbuda. No hearing date has been set. | | The girl's whereabouts, however, were unknown. Last week's report said she left Antigua earlier this year. She was not interviewed in the investigation. Thursday's lawsuit also claims Barua was "victimized" by Bird and "corrupted into immortal and illegal conduct and behavior and has lost a fair opportunity to develop as a normal adolescent." Charlesworth Brown, one of the lawyers for Barua and her mother, declined to give details about the charges, saying "the action was filed and I've no other comment to make." Barua first made her allegations in a four-hour videotaped interview made public in May. The video has since been copied and circulated throughout the island. SCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
