A man accused of raping an elderly woman who cared for him as her own grandchild has lost his appeal against his convictions and 20-year prison sentence for rape and indecent assault.

Conrad Williams, 39, shopkeeper and construction worker of Sue River district, St Mary, and a Kingston address, was convicted in June 2004.

A jury found him guilty of raping the 67-year-old woman in December 2003 and Senior Puisne Judge Marva McIntosh sentenced him.

The woman had testified at the trial that she was at home at about 6 p.m. on December 8, 2003, when the accused whom she knew from he was a child visited her. She said she was lying on her bed when the accused jumped on her and began riding her like a horse at Caymanas Park.

She said she felt every bone in her body reacting to the jump and jolt and her bones began to hurt her. She told him to stop but he continued riding her.

bam***bo root

While he was riding her, she said she discovered that he wanted to rape her. She reminded him that AIDS was around but the accused shouted that she did not have AIDS and he did not have AIDS. Williams raped her for about an hour and left saying he was coming back. She said she left her house and went some distance away and slept for the night in a bam***bo root.

The next day she came into Kingston and reported her ordeal to her children who took her to the police. She said she had 20 children but 10 of them had died.

Under cross-examination at the trial in the St Mary Circuit Court, the complainant said she could never have consented to have sexual intercourse with Williams because he was the same age as her grandchild.

Williams said at the trial that he and the senior citizen had an intimate relationship. He said he had sexual intercourse with her that night but she consented.

Williams appealed yesterday against his conviction and sentence but the Court of Appeal ordered that he should serve the 20-year-prison term.