A passer-by saw this happen at the Market Steps early one evening in May, and approached the group of four boys, who were carrying kick scooters. She said that she had just witnessed a sexual assault and suggested that the boy go to the police.
He did so and Lina Frimate, 36, of Amherst, St Peter Port, was arrested and tried in the Magistrate’s Court, where she denied touching the boy in a sexual manner but was found guilty.
The court heard that the boys knew Frimate by sight. She approached them and they started to talk. They said the conversation was ‘normal’ at first and then turned to sex. Frimate pulled on her bra straps and exposed the top of her breasts. The boy said he was shocked, and after she touched him, both parties left the scene in different directions.
One of the boy’s friends, who appeared as a witness, said he could smell alcohol on the woman’s breath and said she was swaying when she walked, though her speech seemed normal. He recalled the defendant telling his friend that he was handsome, and the witness said he wanted to leave.
He could not remember the whole conversation but was in no doubt that he had seen her grab his friend’s crotch.
The independent witness said the boy had told her that such an incident had happened before. ‘I was shocked and disgusted,’ she told the court.
Frimate was arrested the following day. She was interviewed and gave mainly no comment responses.
In court she denied making sexual conversation with the boy. She said the chat had just been friendly.
She said she had drunk three glasses of wine with a meal before the incident but denied that she was drunk.
Judge Gary Perry said that the three prosecution witnesses had appeared confident, honest and reliable, and he believed their accounts.
The defendant had denied the incident and could not say why two young boys and a complete stranger might have wanted to make this allegation against her.
Frimate has another matter pending against her which the prosecution will now review. She must return to court on 31 December and her conditional bail was extended. She was made subject to notification requirements with immediate effect.
