Sexual assault video on TV triggers outrage

Ian Alleyne was ordered yesterday to pay nearly USD 4,700 by Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Ceasar, who rejected a defence request to spare him from any punishment.

She said the host should have been aware that he was violating the law even though he apparently was trying to help solve the crime by showing the video to viewers of his nightly "Crime Watch" show.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse and the girl will have to live with the stigma," Ayers-Ceasar said.

Alleyne had pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the sexual offences act, a section of which prohibits identifying victims of sexual assault. He said after the sentencing that he accepted the decision and would pay the fine.

"There was never any malicious intent on the part of my client," defence attorney Om Lalla said. Alleyne, he added, is "contrite, sorry and remorseful and had learned his lesson; his guilt was caused by over-zealousness."

The host, whose program appears on local station CCN TV6, has portrayed himself as a crusader against crime and corruption at a time when the twin island southern Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago has struggled with both.

His show has resulted in a number of arrests and supporters tried to block police as he was taken into custody and briefly detained in April

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