Child molester to know appeal fate Friday
Published:Wednesday | June 22, 2022 | 12:07 AM
The Court of Appeal will on Friday hand down its decision in the matter of 66-year-old Kenneth Morris, who was convicted in 2017 for molesting a 10-year-old girl.
Morris had appealed primarily on grounds that he has been waiting for five years to have his case heard.
The St Catherine resident was convicted in the St Catherine Circuit Court by Justice Marcia Dunbar Green and later sentenced to two years and four months for sexual touching of a child 14 years for grievous sexual assault, with the possibility of being paroled after serving 10 years.
Attorney-at-law Kemoy McEkron said his client’s constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process were breached due to the length of the delay in producing the transcript of the trial.
The Crown and the defence agreed that the five-year period was a delay and constituted a breach of Morris’ rights.
McEkron argued that a reduction in the sentence by five years would be an appropriate remedy.
He said the trial judge also erred when she failed to adequately assist the jury regarding the legal element required to be proven for the offence of grievous sexual assault, specifically penetration.
McEkron also contended that the judge failed to give a proper good character direction to assist the jury, describing her actions as “giving with one hand and taking away with the other”.
In her submission, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Andrea Martin-Swaby said the appellant’s sentence ought not to be reduced as he is still serving his mandatory sentence.
She said based on the evidence of the complainant, it was sufficient for a jury properly directed to find that there were two offences committed – sexual touch and penetration.
Martin-Swaby told the court that the appellant said nothing about his own credibility in his evidence.
Further, she said the judge made it clear to the jury that Morris had not given any evidence about his good character.
She added that the judge was being faithful to the point that she was being generous to the accused.
“Even if when Her Ladyship started out, it might have been diluted. These are words, My Lord, that accord with a full credibility direction,” the Martin-Swaby reasoned.
In 2017, the Crown had led evidence that the appellant molested the child at the back of his house, while her friend was at the front of the premises. The incident happened in January 2013.
The child later reported the matter and Morris was arrested and charged.
However, he denied the allegations, saying that malice was the reason for the allegations, claiming he and the child’s mother had a disagreement after they entered into a partner scheme and she failed to pay him $3,000 that was owed to him. He had also claimed that the child’s family wanted his home.