(Jamaica Gleaner) Detective Constable Leslie Walker, who was convicted in June 2021 of raping a then 15-year-old schoolgirl, has lost his appeal against his conviction and sentence.
The trial judge had sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment with a stipulation that he should serve 10 years before he is eligible for parole.
In dismissing the 50-year-old policeman’s appeal last week Friday, the Court of Appeal ruled that the sentence was not excessive and should be reckoned as having commenced on July 16, 2021.
Walker had joined the police force in 1997.
The complainant was at a bus stop in Portmore, St Catherine on February 16, 2016, waiting on transportation to go to school when Walker, who was her father’s friend, offered her a ride.
She got into the car but he instead took her to his home in Portmore.
Walker then invited her inside the house and raped her.
A report was made to the police in June 2016 and when the complainant was medically examined, it was discovered she was pregnant.
Walker, in his defence, denied committing the offence and said he did not know the complainant.
He said he was at the Police Academy Training School in St Catherine that day and brought a police officer to support his alibi.
The complainant’s father had testified that Walker knew his daughter because at times when he came to his mechanic shop his daughter was there.
Attorney-at-law Jacqueline Cummings, who represented Walker, had argued that the trial judge erred in finding that Walker committed the offence and referred to inconsistencies and contradictions in the Crown’s case.
The court held that the judge’s duty was to determine whether Walker had raped the complainant and in totality of the evidence, the discrepancies did not undermine the complainant’s evidence in that regard.
Prosecutors Janek Forbes and Alice-Ann Gabbidon represented the Crown.
