Jamaican man in Canada charged for murder of woman

A Jamaican man has been charged by the London, Ontario police in Canada with second-degree murder in the death of a woman last Friday.

Alton Farquharson, 56, originally from Manchester, is expected to go to court on Tuesday.

The police have not released the identity of the 47-year-old woman but say she was found with a traumatic injury inside a unit at 297 Westminster Avenue in south London early Friday morning.

She was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

A man whom police said was known to the woman was arrested at the scene, but the nature of their relationship was not provided.

However, several social media pages linked to Jamaica have reported that the couple was married and the husband was a pastor from Mile Gully.

Investigators have characterised the death as a femicide, the gender-based killing of women and girls, but say out of respect for the wishes of her family, the victim is not being identified.

The incident has been widely covered by Ontario media with emphasis on femicide related crimes and calls for it to be treated as an epidemic.

London is a major city located in South Western Ontario in Canada.

- Karen Madden

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