JP and ex-JDF member who fondled 11-y-o girl loses appeal

Justice of the Peace and former member of the Jamaica Defence Force, Seymour Cole, has lost an appeal against his conviction and six-month prison sentence for indecent assault involving an 11-year-old girl in 2018.

The Court of Appeal ruled recently that the 53-year-old must serve the sentence. 

The girl had reported to her mother and the police that on the afternoon of August 22,  2018, Cole abused her.

She was taking clothes off the line when Cole, who was known to her, called her over to a house which was in the yard where the she lived. 

Cole fondled the girl's breasts and her vagina and rubbed his hand across her mouth, according to the evidence that was accepted at the trial in the St Catherine Parish Court in January 2020.

“Mek mi see it, mek mi see it," the child said, recalling one of Cole's instructions after he pushed her onto a settee. She did not know what he meant. She told the court the man offered her things he brought for his daughter. 

While engaging in the assault, Cole looked through the window and told the girl to run because the mother of his child was coming.

The girl went home and made a report to her mother.

In his defence at the trial, Cole, who is the father of nine children, denied that he had inappropriately touched the girl. He also argued that there was "bad blood" between the child's mother and Cole's spouse. 

He was found guilty by parish judge Tara Carr (now acting Supreme Court Judge) on January 4, 2021.

In passing sentence of imprisonment at hard labour, the judge said such offences were happening far too often and the damage done to the child was not often appreciated until much further down the road.

The judge pointed out that Cole was like a father to the child and was someone in authority.

Cole appealed on the grounds that the girl was not a credible witness and the judge erred in accepting her evidence.

His attorney, Patrick Bailey argued that the judge erred when she rejected the possibility that the girl lied about the assault.

The lawyer referred to the fact that the very day when she made the report she had eaten a slice of cake and lied that she did not eat it because she feared being reprimanded by her mother.

Bailey told the Court of Appeal that the girl had admitted at the trial to telling lies to get herself out of trouble.

Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Jeremy Taylor and Crown Counsel Kimberly Guy Reid opposed the lawyer's arguments. 

They contended that the issue of the cake would be secondary to the assault because the unchallenged evidence was that the girl was crying even before her mother asked her about the cake.

In dismissing the appeal, the court said there was no basis upon which it could conclude that the finding by the trial judge that the girl was a credible witness was materially or demonstrably wrong.

“Although not necessarily required, she, in a commendable transparent manner, thoroughly and critically canvassed all the evidence before making findings of fact that are supported by evidence.  She gave herself adequate warnings and directions,” the court held.

The court said the judge considered and rejected Cole's defence before finally accepting the girl as a witness of truth who gave credible evidence. 

“It has not been established that there is any basis for interfering with the verdict," the court ruled.

Cole was on bail pending the outcome of the appeal and will now begin to serve the sentence as of July 1 when his appeal was dismissed.

The court deducted a period of one month and seven days from the six-month sentence as Cole was in custody during that time.

Cole served the JDF for 11 years and taught remedial reading at inner-city schools.

- Barbara Gayle

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