Lead Stories

Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

A woman, who made several telephone calls to a complainant who was raped asking her not to report the matter to the police, was yesterday convicted by a Home Circuit Court jury.

Stephanie Morgan, 48, house-hold helper, of Cacoon Castle, Hanover, was found guilty of doing acts tending and intending to pervert the course of public justice. Morgan's boyfriend was accused at the time of raping the complainant.

Morgan was given a three-year suspended sentence.

Mr Justice Lennox Campbell, in passing sentence, said there was a growing trend in Jamaica where the women were protecting criminals. He told Morgan that she had committed a serious offence and told her that if she were convicted of any offence during the next three years she would have to serve the three-year prison sentence.

The Crown, represented by Crown Counsel Kamar Henry, led evidence that in January 2007, Morgan telephoned the com-plainant in a rape case, asking her not to report an allegation of rape against Morgan's boyfriend.

It was reported at the time that Morgan's boyfriend, O'Brien Lindo, a bus driver, of a Kingston address, had raped the complainant.

The police subsequently arrested and charged Morgan when she and Lindo went to Emancipation Park to meet with the complainant.

Lindo has since been convicted of several charges of rape and is serving a prison sentence.