An ex-chairman of the West End Development Corporation and former One Bermuda Alliance election candidate is to launch an appeal against a sex assault conviction, Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.

Elizabeth Christopher, for Raymond Charlton, said she would appeal the conviction after she found evidence of “involuntary intoxication” in his psychological assessment.

Charlton, 63, was convicted in March of a sex assault on a 20-year-old woman, but acquitted of an intrusion on the woman’s privacy.

Charlton was found guilty of grabbing the woman’s buttocks at her Sandys home in August, 2018.

The victim cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Charlton, also from Sandys, pleaded not guilty to the offences in May, 2019.

He was scheduled to be sentenced yesterday, but the sentence was held over after Ms Christopher announced the appeal.

Shaunte Simons, for the Crown, earlier asked magistrate Craig Attridge to sentence Charlton to three months in jail followed by 12 to 18 months probation.

Charlton was the chairman of Wedco between 2013 and 2019.

Charlton joined the OBA in 2011 and ran in the Sandys North constituency in the 2012 and 2017 General Elections.

He lost by eight votes to the Progressive Labour Party’s Michael Scott in 2012 and by 280 votes in 2017.

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