A 56-year old instructor of jiu-jitsu who allegedly had sex with a minor has been found guilty by a court in Lincoln County.Reported At wiscasset newspaper Brant Perkins was 55 years old at the time the offence was committed and the victim was a 15-year old female student at the time. The trial had ingredients of sex, texts and jiu-jitsu as well as initial denial and eventual admission of guilt. The accused person and the defense team agreed that the act of sex took place but insisted that the victim was of legal age at the time.
The prosecution stated that the victim was under age and that the accused person knew this when he slept with her. The prosecuting team tendered text messages and recorded telephone conversations to back up their claim. They also called a number of witnesses including a former roommate of the defendant. This witness claimed that the defendant admitted that he knew the victim was 15 years old at the time he had sex with her.
“The only time I had sex with her when she was 15 was the month of November,” Perkins stated on the recording. Perkins described driving the victim home after a jiu jitsu skirmish, when she directed him to pull down a dirt road. “I said what are we doing and she scooched over. That’s basically the beginning of the end,” he said
The defense team wanted their client discharged and acquitted on the grounds that the victim convinced the accused person that she was not under age at the time they had sex. The defense pointed to evidence from the girl’s Facebook page where she claimed she was 18 years old.
The accused person eventually admitted that he had sex with the victim when she was 15 years old but did not continue sexual relations with her after he had found out her real age. The Lincoln Superior County Court found the defendant and ruled that a child pornography case stemming from the case will be tried separately.
