An incest trial involving a Kingston real estate businessman, who was accused of raping his 15-year-old daughter three years ago, collapsed Thursday in the Home Circuit Court after his daughter maintained that she had lied.

The businessman’s daughter, who had confessed from last year that she had lied, was taken into custody and charged with creating public mischief. It is believed that she was subsequently granted station bail

The 66-year-old businessman was freed on two counts of incest by Justice Yvonne Brown at the start of the trial, after the complainant admitted in court that she lied and that her father never sexually assaulted her.

The businessman was arrested in 2017 after his daughter reported to the police that he raped her on two separate occasions between May and October of 2015.

Attorney Hugh Wildman, who represented the businessman, said prior to the trial he had written to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution indicating that the complainant had given at least three to four different statements to two justices of the peace, stating that she had lied and gave the reason why, but the prosecution still had his client in custody and was prepared to go to trial.

According to Wildman, the complainant said that she lied on her father because he was too strict on her and was forcing her to pursue a career in real estate, and she was annoyed.

The attorney complained that the investigating officer from the Centre for the Investigation for Sexual Offences and Child Abuse had tried to force the complainant to maintain the lie.

“That officer was exposed in court; after that she went to the home of the complainant and intimidated the girl and the mother to tell the court that his client tried to bribe them.”

Wildman said that the complainant and her mother had reported the officer and that the judge had ordered an investigation into the conduct of the police last November when the matter was mentioned, but he has not heard anything about the investigation.

In the meantime, Wildman said his client is feeling very relived because he has been a very good father and the charges were like “a dark cloud hanging over his head”.