Date of verdict finalised by court in Linstead rape case

Jamaica: An accused man, who is a taxi operator in Linstead, in the case of rape and sexual assault on a minor girl ordered to appear in the Saint Catherine Parish Court for the committal hearing on Monday, 27 May. The case is for the year 2022-23 during which the accused man committed the offences he is charged for.

As per the reports, the accused taxi operator forced the minor victim to perform sexual activities for two consecutive years, from January 2022 and December 2023, till the criminal act was reported to the police department of Saint Catherine, a parish in the southern part of Jamaica.

The rape accused is a 44-year-old man, identified in the reports with his documented name of Kirkland Young. Young was professionally a taxi operator and lived in Linstead, a town in the northern part of Saint Catherine parish.

The report was filed against the taxi driver in the rape case of Linstead in the month of February 2024 in the police. In response to the report, the officers from the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offence and Child Abuse (CISOCA) got involved and started the investigation.

The investigation and inquiries conducted by the authorities led the officers to the arrest of the suspect taxi driver, who was subsequently taken into custody. Eventually, the man was laid with the charges for related criminal activities committed by him against the minor.

The taxi operator was charged in the Linstead rape case after the interrogation process for offences including sexual assault, touching sexually, intercourse with a minor, buggery, possession of child pornography, and aiding and abetting.

The accused man is also found involved in related crimes like trafficking, failure to report a felony to the Office of the Children’s Registry, and misprision of a felony. However, the accused denied all the allegations laid on him.

The order was given by the court for the final date of appearance of the accused taxi driver in the parish court where the final verdict will be given on the rape case of a minor in Linstead. The date was finalised after noticing all the arguments and clues collected with proceedings and getting indications from both the involved sides.

The people are seen giving their opinion on the rape case against the minor in Linstead. The people are saying, “The man is a monster. How people go down to such an extent is out of our understanding. The bastard was abusing the little girl for two years and no one got to know anything. Think about the trouble and fear she suffered all that time. She was not even able to tell someone. So many more monsters are still hidden in the society and many more innocent victims.”