7 News Belize

24 year old alleged serial rapist Leroy Gomez beat his fourth case involving rape and robbery today when the complainant, a 23 year old woman, took the witness stand and said she feared for her life and that she has her children to live for. With no evidence coming from the complainant the Crown Counsel closed the case for the prosecution. The jury was directed to return formal verdicts of not guilty of rape and robbery. Although Gomez was found not guilty, he was not freed because he is serving the remainder of a 5 year sentence for robbery. The incident occurred around 5:20 am on Sunday, September 14th 2008. The 23 year old woman reported to police that she was walking home from a dance when she was accosted by a man who rode up to her on a bike. She said the assailant put a knife to her throat then used the same knife to cut through her leggings and proceeded to rape her on the side of the street. She said that her assailant also stole her Motorola cell phone valued at $899.00. Earlier this year, Gomez was convicted of rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and was sentenced to 20 years. After he appealed, his conviction was quashed, his sentence set aside, and was acquitted. He was freed of charges of rape and robbery in another case because the complainant had died. Gomez was also freed of charges of attempted rape and robbery because the complainant refused to testify.