Pathways pastor was convicted for sexually assaulting man in Canada

The police have confirmed that Kevin O. Smith, the deceased pastor of the Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries was in 2007 convicted in Canada for the sexual assault of a 21-year-old man.

However, Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey could not immediately say whether Smith was deported to Jamaica.

Speaking earlier during the recording of The Gleaner's A Section current affairs podcast, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn said Smith's antecedent was a part of the case file for the deceased pastor.

Smith was convicted in Ontario on November 5, 2007 on one count of assault and served six months in prison, the DPP said.

Probation orders for up to 10 years were also made.

However, the orders were breached in August 2017 and and Smith was given a suspended sentence and additional probational orders for 18 months in Toronto.  

Smith, 39, died yesterday in a car crash in Linstead, St Catherine while being escorted by the police to Kingston where he was expected to be charged for murder.

Twenty-six-year-old constable Orlando Irons also succumbed to injuries.

Two of his colleagues were seriously injured.

The DPP had intended to enter a voluntary bill of indictment that would have seen the case bypass the St James courts and tried in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston. 

Smith was arrested, along with several of his congregants on October 17, after the police stormed his church during a ritual.

Two worshippers were killed.

A third was shot dead during a confrontation with the police.

Smith was born in Glengoffe, St Catherine and migrated to Canada in 1993, three months after he started Jamaica College.

An aunt has said he started his ministry in Canada, married and later divorced before establishing himself in Jamaica when he returned in 2011.

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