Tower street adult correctional centre – I read in your newspaper of Sunday the 18th of September, 2005 an article written by Lavern Clarke under the caption “Video-taped gang rape of sisters sets legal precedent”. My name was mentioned in the article as one of the five accused men who was tried and convicted for the crime.

Before I venture any further, I need to state quite patently that I do not speak for or on behalf of any other person whose name appeared in this article. I speak only for myself since I can only account for myself.

I am in the security of a state, conscious that I was nowhere near the scene at the time that the sisters were being subjected to the vicious acts of sexual savagery which was shown on the video-tape. I am an innocent and humble man who is a victim of a gross miscarriage of justice.

I knew the other men only because we are all from the same community. However, I was never a part of, nor a part to, the gang rape of these poor girls. In fact we may flock together, but we certainly are not birds of a feather.

I was held because of a photograph that was found at the home of Livingston Bent, one of the accused, now deceased, killed by other prisoners at the Spanish Town District Prison. The photograph features myself, Bent and others at a work project in the community. The photograph was taken about three years prior to the rape incident. The police began to arrest every person seen on that photograph.

Therefore, it was in that manner that I was falsely implicated in the crime. It was stated in the article that anal sex was part of the girls’ ordeal. Although I wasn’t there, I can proclaim with a high degree of accuracy that they were not subjected to any form of anal sex.

If they were, I am sure they would have told it to the court while they were giving their testimonies. Besides, nowhere in the over 30 minutes of video-tape evidence, that was shown in court, was there seen any acts of anal sex. Moreover, I have read the transcript of the trial and nowhere on that document was a word written about anal sex.

The article seems to be showing that video-tape evidence can be used as a perfect method of presenting the facts in court. While I am in no position to say what are the advantages or disadvantages that may be had from the use of video-tape evidence, I can safely say that the admittance of the video-tape as evidence at the trial has done grievous injustice to me.

After the video tape was viewed in court by the judge, lawyers, crown counsels, the victims and the accused, the spirit of a dispassionate and un-prejudice trial was thrown out of the courtroom by everyone, including some of the very lawyers who were there to defend their clients. What followed next was only a charade. The courtroom was replete with palpable sympathy for the victims, while on the other hand there was a unquenchable antipathy and disdain towards the accused.

In such a well charged atmosphere of bias, it was impossible for an innocent person, as I am, to get a fair trial.

I was never seen on the tape that was shown in court, yet I was convicted. The image of a person from the waist down was seen on the video-tape. Under cross examination by the crown counsel, one of the victims claimed that I was that person seen from the waist down.

I could not have been on the video-tape, because I was not involved in the raping of the girls. Neither was I present when the girls were being raped. There was also a lot of conflicting stories between the two girls testimonies in court. As it relates to the half-human shown on the video-tape.

I still cannot understand why the police refused to use DNA evidence in this case even though it was, and still is, available to them. I also blame the court for not ordering the gathering of DNA evidence. I am confident that if DNA evidence had been used I would have been acquitted. In the interest of justice, I believe it still can be done.

I am hoping that you will seek permission from the commissioner of correctional services to do an interview with me so that I can give you more detailed information on the ramifications associated with the use of video-tape evidence. I am willing to talk to Ms Lavern Clarke or anyone who has an interest in the use of videotape evidence in court.