A 25-year-old man was yesterday convicted by unanimous verdict of a sex attack on a five-year-old girl.Merrick Seaman, of Park Hill, Warwick, was found guilty of two counts of sexual exploitation of a young person. He denied the offences and told police in an interview he spent the morning smoking cigarettes and talking to friends.The four-man eight-woman Supreme Court jury took approximately two hours to deliver their verdict on the assault, which happened last July.Seaman is said to suffer from schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, and was dropped off at Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute (MWI) to meet with his case worker that morning.Prosecutor Robert Welling said the out-patient left the facility and preyed upon the young girl, who was lagging behind while playing with her cousin and sister.He committed the sexual assault in a secluded area, the court heard.Shortly after the attack, the little girl appeared “wide-eyed” and “upset” and told her mother what happened.DNA from saliva found on both the girl’s underwear and private parts matched the defendant’s DNA, according to expert Candy Zuleger.However defence lawyer Ken Savoury said his client did not fit the description of the suspect.The five-year-old described her attacker as wearing a green shirt, blue jeans and being tall like her father, who is approximately 6ft 1in. The accused is under 5ft 7in.Mr Savoury said during his closing arguments: “We must not cherry pick [the victim’s] evidence. We must not only accept what she said happened to her, but we must also accept who did it to her and the description of who did it to her.”He said his client was wearing black jeans and a black G Unit T-shirt, which he exchanged with a homeless man earlier that day for a blue shirt.According to Seaman’s testimony he was never wearing a green shirt that day.MWI clinic unit manager Christopher Tuckett said he confiscated a green sports jersey from another patient on the day of the attack.A Bermuda Hospitals Board spokeswoman released a statement to the media, following the conclusion of the trial yesterday afternoon.The spokeswoman said: “Our sympathy is with the victim in this case. It is a very sad incident and our hearts go out to the young girl and her family.“We need to remember, however, that it is extremely rare that our outpatients are a danger to the public in this way. This case is a tragic but very rare exception.“We are sensitive to the concerns of our neighbours and the general community and do not encourage people using MWI services to remain in the area if they don’t need to be there.”The spokeswoman said MWI was not empowered to stop people from using public areas simply because they are accessing a mental health service.“This would be a form of discrimination,” she said.She added that if anyone had a specific concern about particular individuals, or witnessed potentially criminal behaviour they should immediately contact the police, “irrespective of whether that person is a service user at MWI or not”.