A years-old case of alleged child sexual assault has resulted in formal arrest and charges for a Belizean man, law enforcement authorities confirmed in a briefing published on April 8, 2026. Twenty-seven-year-old Alexander Leal Miguel, a naturalized Belizean resident of Red Bank Village in the Stann Creek District, faces three criminal counts of unlawful sexual intercourse connected to repeated offenses against an underage female. Investigators confirmed the alleged abuse occurred on three separate occasions between 2021 and 2022, a timeline that has drawn attention to the multi-year gap between the offenses and the filing of formal charges. While law enforcement has not released public details about what led to the recent breakthrough in the cold case, senior officials stressed that serious sexual offenses against minors do not expire under Belizean law. In a media briefing on the arrest, Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith, Staff Officer, outlined the details of the charges and addressed questions about the delayed prosecution. When reporters asked how charges could be filed years after the alleged incidents took place, Smith confirmed that there is no statute of limitations for sexual offenses of this severe nature in Belize. “Police have formally arrested and charged Alexander Leal Miguel, a twenty-seven-year-old naturalized Belizean of Red Bank Village, for three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse. These charges follow police investigation into a report that he had sexual intercourse with a female who was below the age of consent on three separate occasions between 2021 and 2022,” Smith stated in the official briefing. Law enforcement officials used the high-profile arrest to send a clear message to survivors of sexual assault and perpetrators alike: no amount of passing time eliminates criminal accountability for these crimes. This report is adapted from a transcript of an evening television newscast published online.