Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

So­ca artiste Kim­ba Sorzano has been freed of at­tempt­ed rape and two griev­ous sex­u­al as­sault charges af­ter the woman who ac­cused him failed to tes­ti­fy at his tri­al.

Sorzano was freed at the end of his tri­al be­fore High Court Judge Gillian Scot­land yes­ter­day.

Sorzano's al­leged vic­tim was ex­pect­ed to take the wit­ness stand as his tri­al com­menced at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain, last week.

How­ev­er, she failed to at­tend court and pros­e­cu­tors were un­able to lo­cate her.

Dur­ing yes­ter­day's hear­ing, Jus­tice Scot­land di­rect­ed pros­e­cu­tors to not of­fer any ev­i­dence against Sorzano based on the ab­sence of their main wit­ness.

The nine-mem­ber ju­ry hear­ing the ev­i­dence in the case were di­rect­ed to re­turn with not guilty ver­dicts for Sorzano.

Sorzano, a for­mer flight at­ten­dant whose mu­si­cal ca­reer was pro­pelled by his Peo­ple's Choice Award in Syn­er­gy TV's So­ca Star com­pe­ti­tion in 2006, was ar­rest­ed and charged in May 2020 over an al­leged in­ci­dent which oc­curred in Point Fortin months be­fore.

The "Over You" and "Ad­dict­ed to Bad Gyal" singer was grant­ed $85,000 bail dur­ing his first court ap­pear­ance.

At the time, Sorzano's lawyer Kel­ston Pope, of Al­lum Cham­bers, claimed that his client de­nied any wrong­do­ing.

"My client main­tains his in­no­cence, he will trust the process and speak freely af­ter his vin­di­ca­tion on the charges brought against him. These mat­ters are now be­fore the court and the rule of sub ju­dice will be ob­served," Pope said.

The charges were dis­missed in Oc­to­ber 2022 but were sub­se­quent­ly re­in­stat­ed by the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP).

In a post on his Face­book page, Sorzano thanked God for the favourable out­come of his case.

"At my first de­fence, no one came to my sup­port, but every­one de­sert­ed me," Sorzano said.

"But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the mes­sage might be ful­ly pro­claimed and all the Gen­tiles might hear it. And I was de­liv­ered from the li­on's mouth," he added.

Sorzano was al­so rep­re­sent­ed by Ash­leigh Moti­lal. He was pros­e­cut­ed by As­sis­tant DPP Tat­erani Seecha­ran and pros­e­cu­tor Melis­sa Bood­hai.