Dr Proctor found guilty

Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

WORLD-RENOWNED botanist, 89-year-old Dr George Proctor, and his driver, 43-year-old Glenmore Fillington, were convicted yesterday by a seven-member jury of conspiracy to murder Proctor's wife and three other women.

The jury deliberated for more than four hours.

Proctor, an American who has been living in Jamaica since 1949, created history in being the oldest person to be convicted in a Jamaican court. After he retired from the Institute of Jamaica, he continued working as a con-sultant botanist with the institute and the University of the West Indies. He is an authority on Jamaica's flora.

Supreme Court Judge Gloria Smith remanded the two for sentencing on February 2, on the four counts of conspiracy to murder.

The maximum sentence for the offence is 10 years' imprisonment.

Daughter relieved

Fillington, of Lyn Avenue, Christiana, Manchester, shook his head and was on the verge of tears when the jury handed down the verdict in the Home Circuit Court. The very frail-looking Proctor, who now walks with the aid of a cane, showed no sign of emotion.

One of Proctor's daughters, who attended the trial daily with her mother, 69-year-old Leila Campbell Proctor - the woman the men had plotted to kill - wept when she heard the verdict. She was comforted by her mother.

Tom Tavares-Finson, who represented Finson, and attorney-at-law Vincent Wellesley, who represented Fillington, said the men were going to appeal.