JUNO PEN, St Mary — Damion White, a badly mauled accused rapist/killer, who the police had to spirit out of the Annotto Bay Hospital Wednesday night to escape a mob of angry vigilantes, later died in the St Ann’s Bay Hospital where he was taken for safety and treatment.

The Annotto Bay police said they were searching for the persons who had beaten and chopped White, 21, and would likely charge them with murder.

“The person or persons responsible, if identified, will be asked to account for the murder,” said Corporal Alford Stoddart.

There were, however, no immediate suspects, Stoddart said.

The bizarre events that culminated in White’s death, started in this small, and usually quiet St Mary community, six miles from Annotto Bay, on Tuesday with the murder of Althea Dicks, 17.

It was only last month that Althea Dicks graduated from the Annotto Bay High School. She was described by friends and family yesterday as a bright and athletic girl with a promising future.

Damion White, a labourer, originally from Golden Grove, St Thomas, but living in Juno Pen, was known to the Dicks, who also live in the district.

According to the Annotto Bay police, Michael Dicks, Althea’s father, and other members of the family, were at home when they heard screams for help coming from an unoccupied building nearby.

Michael Dicks went to investigate. Dicks is reported to have seen White coming from the building. He asked about the noise.

White’s response, the accounts in the community say, was to shove Dicks out of the way and onto the ground, then run pell mell into nearby bushes.

When Dicks recovered, what he found in the abandoned building was the body of his daughter, naked from the waist down and lying on her back. She was dead.

The police said yesterday that there were signs that Althea was sexually assaulted. Marks on her body were consistent with beating and strangulation. The body was removed to Mizpah Funeral Home in Port Maria for an autopsy.

The police began a manhunt for White shortly after the incident was reported. But Juno Pen vigilantes were also conducting their own search.

It was the latter group who found White late Wednesday afternoon. He was allegedly hiding in a banana field in Georgia district, near Annotto Bay. White was set upon, chopped and beaten before being rescued by the police.

He was taken to the Annotto Bay Hospital.

The vigilantes, however, were not satisfied that the man who they believed had raped and killed Althea Dicks had received adequate punishment. An angry group turned up at the Annotto Bay Hospital baying for his blood.

According to the police, when they refused to turn White over to the crowd, the hospital building was stoned and several windows broken.

The tyres of an ambulance parked on the premises were slashed. The mob wanted to prevent the use of the ambulance to transport White to St Ann’s Bay.

The police eventually managed to remove him to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital where he died after 11 o’clock Wednesday night.