News Briefs

INDECOM gets new head

Hugh Faulkner was yesterday sworn in by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen as the new commissioner of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) for a term of five years.

Faulkner, who previously served as the executive director of the Legal Aid Council and sat on several boards and tribunals, succeeds Terrence Williams.

INDECOM is a civilian-staffed state agency tasked to undertake investigations concerning actions by members of the security forces and other agents of the State.

Ex-cop shot dead in St Catherine

An ex-policeman was killed yesterday morning at a National Water Commission sewage treatment plant in St Catherine and his licensed firearm stolen by his attackers.

He has been identified as 59-year-old Newton Bently of a Caymanas Estate address in the parish.

It is reported that about 7:05 a.m., Bently, who was employed at the treatment plant as a security guard, was approached and attacked and shot by hoodlums.

They stole his Beretta 9mm pistol before escaping.

The St Catherine North police are investigating.

Inmates plead guilty to manslaughter in Mario Deane case

Six years after the death of Mario Deane following a beating he received while in police custody, Marvin Orr and Adrian Morgan, the inmates charged in relation to his death, yesterday pleaded guilty to manslaughter before the St James Circuit Court.

Orr and Morgan, who had been charged with murder, both pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter following discussions between their attorneys and the prosecution.

Deane was beaten on August 3, 2014, while in custody at the Barnett Street Police Station in Montego Bay for possession of a ganja spliff. Deane died three days later.

Orr and Morgan, who were also in custody at the lock-up at the time, were subsequently charged, along with a third inmate, Damion Cargill. In July 2017, Cargill was judged unfit to stand trial and was released into his family’s care.

They will be sentenced today.

Kingston teen charged with brother’s murder

A 16-year-old boy is scheduled to appear before the courts next Wednesday after being charged with the murder of his brother in Rockfort, Kingston, on July 22.

Dead is 19-year-old Adrian Stewart, a labourer of the same address.

Reports from the Rockfort police are that about 7:20 a.m., Stewart and his brother had an altercation, during which Stewart was stabbed in the upper body. The police were summoned, and Stewart was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The teen was charged on Tuesday.