SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine — A 37 year-old man who allegedly got his 13 year-old daughter pregnant was this week unable to answer the incest charge in the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate’s Court because he was said to be suffering from Pink Eye.

The investigating officer told Resident Magistrate Lorna Gayle that the man, a resident of Irish Pen, near Spanish Town, did not get the chance to appear in court because he was sick.

The magistrate then set August 19 as the day he should return to court. But she told the investigating officer that he should “make sure that the colour in his eye is changed”.

The court was told that following the death of the complainant’s mother in 2001, the girl went to reside with her father in the community.

However, he has allegedly been having frequent sex with her, with the last time said to be on July 5, which resulted in the girl becoming pregnant.

According to the police, the man then decided to send the girl to Cottage District in Manchester to spend time with a relative after his neighbours found out that she was pregnant for him.

He subsequently fled to Manchester after his neighbours threatened to beat him after they learnt that he had gotten the girl pregnant, the court was told.

While in Manchester, the police said, a relative of the girl reported the matter to the police in the area, who returned the girl to Spanish Town where she lodged a complaint against her father on July 9 to the Spanish Town police.

The man was held at his Spanish Town home on Saturday, July 26 and charged with incest.

Meanwhile, a source told the Observer that the girl has since had an abortion, for medical reasons.