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Homeless man admits serious sexual assault

A man has admitted raping a woman in the area of South Road, Smith’s, in broad daylight.Brittonie Taylor, 30, carried out the attack around 9am on Saturday, May 28. The Royal Gazette reported at the time how he was pursued on foot by police and attempted to evade arrest by jumping in the ocean.However, he was arrested a short time later on suspicion of sexual assault. Taylor, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to serious sexual assault when he appeared at the Supreme Court arraignments session yesterday. He could not be identified in previous reports for legal reasons.Defence lawyer Marc Daniels requested psychiatric and psychological reports for Taylor before he is sentenced. Chief Justice Richard Ground remanded him into custody until arraignments on September 1 when a date for his sentencing will be fixed.Meanwhile, in another case, five men pleaded not guilty to attempting to bring $3.4 million of cannabis into Bermuda by sea.Carlos Rogers and Kwesi Hollis were arrested on January 21 when they sailed the long-overdue Carefree IV sloop into St David’s.They went missing after setting off from the Dominican Republic on December 1, sparking a large-scale search amid fears they were lost at sea. Their co-accused, Shaun Johnson, Bilal Shakir and Kinole Simons had their boat intercepted by Marine Police near Penhurst Dock in Pembroke earlier the same day.This morning, all five men pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others not before the courts to import cannabis. They denied a second charge of possessing cannabis in the territorial waters of Bermuda with intent to supply it. Johnson, Shakir and Simons are further charged with handling cannabis with intent to supply.They denied the charge. The men are all Sandys Parish residents except Hollis, of Hamilton Parish and Johnson of Pembroke.Chief Justice Richard Ground granted them all bail until their trial on March 12 next year.