BACOLOD CITY-A 54-year-old Australian engineer, who has decided to spend the remaining days of his life in the Philippines, was acquitted Wednesday of 87 counts of rape.
Judge Reynaldo Alon, presiding judge of the Silay City Regional Trial Court Branch 40, said he ordered the release from jail of Australian John Paul Taylor after the prosecution failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt in all the charges filed against him. Taylor has been in jail for two years and 10 months.
The complainant, a 14-year-old watch-your-car girl, accused Taylor of raping her for 91 days from September 2 to December 1998 at the Valladars Apartment on Roxas and Yap Quina streets in Victorias City, Negros Occidental. Nene (not her real name), whose mother was employed by Taylor as a househelp, also claimed that the Australian employed intimidation in raping her.
In his 65-page decision, Alon said that, given the physical condition of Taylor at the time of the alleged rapes, with both of his legs being supported by steel braces and who uses a cane to support himself while walking, "such feat would be incredible." Alon added that the alleged 87 rapes that were repeatedly done in such a robotic manner, "is a story, not only this Court, but even an ordinary person will find absolutely absurd." "No human being is capable of such incredulous redundancy," he stressed.
Taylor admitted that the alleged victim's mother, a cigarette vendor whose identity is also being withheld, had compelled her daughter to file charges against him after he turned down their demands to pay them P125,000 to P300,000. Assuming that the alleged rapes did occur, Alon said, the complainant had several opportunities to shout for help since their rented apartment is located in a heavily populated area and a school zone.
The complainant's failure to flee, which she could have done, judging by the physical incapacity of the accused, and to shout for help before the alleged rape was committed, is inconsistent with the normal behavior of a woman who feels her virtue is being threatened, he also stressed. Taylor said he has been suffering from peripheral muscular atrophy for 11 years now. He arrived in the Philippines in 1974 after he retired from working in a mining company in Australia.
Although he said it is impossible for him to forgive those who had manufactured the accusations that led to his detention for almost three years, Taylor said he is not interested in filing countercharges against the alleged victim and her mother. "I was optimistic that I would be cleared since I am innocent," he added. Alon noted that the contradictions presented by the complainant in her declarations are too glaring and strike at her very credibility.
"In a criminal case, every doubt must be resolved in favor of the accused and the constitutional presumption of innocence still stands. For this reason, the accused must be acquitted," he said. TODAY
