Carnival man gets 20 years for rape

The court yesterday slapped a carnival worker with a 20-year imprisonment for raping a 10-year-old girl in the town of Carcar three years ago.

Regional Trial Court judge Raphael Yrastorza Sr. found Dominador Cañedo guilty beyond reasonable doubt for sexually molesting the girl inside a derelict vehicle near the town's public plaza on November 24, 2002.

Yraztorza gave much credence to the victim's "straightforward" testimonies that after Cañedo asked her to buy a bottle of beer, he brought her to a secluded place where she was undressed and sexually molested.

Although Cañedo never penetrated the girl, he used his finger on her genitals. He also instructed the victim to fondle his genitals but she refused.

In his denial, Cañedo said he did not know the victim because he only met her on the evening of November 25, 2002 - a day after she was reportedly raped - when he was brought to the police station.

But Yraztorza ruled that the "denial cannot prevail over the positive identification made by the victim."

"He could not give any reason why the ten-year-old child would point him out as the person who molested/raped her if the same is not true. The girl's testimony in court is credible considering that it was given in a straightforward and candid manner," Yraztorza ruled.

Records showed that prior to the incident, the victim's playmates left her when they went to the plaza to watch a carnival show.