The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has recommended that former Bishops High School teacher, Coen Jackson, be charged with a sexual offence allegedly committed on a child.
Jackson, a former Economics teacher at one of Guyana’s top senior secondary schools, is expected to be charged with engaging in sexual activity with a child by abusing his position of trust.
Coen Jackson, an Economics teacher at one of Guyana’s top senior secondary schools, is expected to be charged with engaging in sexual activity with a child by
Coen Jackson flanked by his legal team at a previous press conference
abusing the position of trust.
The DPP, Shalimar Hack, returned the case file earlier today with advice for charges to be laid, after months of back and forth between the Police and her office. The recommendation was made after Police conducted additional work based on the DPP’s request for copies of birth certificates and additional statements from a counselling agency that is dealing with the now 21-year-old complainant.
According to sources in the legal fraternity, the disgraced teacher could be arraigned as soon as today in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
The charge, of which Jackson is accused of, is covered in the Sexual Offences Act of Guyana.
According to the Act, a person who commits an offence under this section is liable, where the sexual activity included sexual penetration, on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for life. In any other case, on summary conviction, to a fine of one million dollars and to imprisonment for five years.
Jackson is being accused of abusing his position of trust as a teacher when he began grooming female students for sexual activities after they would have attained the age of 16 – the legal age of consent in Guyana. He has vehemently denied the accusations but did admit to having sexual relations with two former students who are now both in their early 20s.
The embattled teacher recently got married to one of his former students who is said to be in her early 20s. According to him, their relationship has been ongoing for a number of years.
The Police claim that between December 2010 and May 2011 at D’Urban Street, Lodge, Georgetown, Jackson raped one of his students.
The Education Ministry launched a full investigation into the allegations and upon completion, authorised the Police to begin conducting a criminal investigation. The Police’s investigation resulted in Jackson being arrest in December and subsequently released on $100,000 bail.
It was a senior Government official who broke the news of the alleged sexual misconduct of Jackson on social media, and ever since, the story has catapulted resulting in a number of past students relating their experiences.
The official, in a letter to the Chief Education Officer, detailed numerous reports he received from present and past students of the teacher, who allegedly sexualised his lessons, had inappropriate conversations with female students and engaged in multiple sexual relationships with female students.
Jackson has retained the services of attorneys Jerome Khan, Priyanka Sookraj and Siand Dhurjan.
