ST CATHERINE councillor Ned Lawrence whose son is wanted for questioning by the police in relation to several murders in Spanish Town, the parish capital, still enjoys the support of the People’s National Party, on whose ticket the councillor was elected. Police have identified the son only as ‘Devil’.

PNP deputy general secretary, Colin Campbell said party officials had discussed Devil “at length” with Lawrence, adding that the councillour retains the party’s confidence.

“Inasmuch as we have to take some responsibility for our children, the issue regarding his son is not one in which he is involved,” said Campbell, speaking with the Sunday Observer.

Lawrence, the deputy general secretary said, acted correctly by using the media to appeal to his son to get in contact with the police.

The police had issued a public appeal for the councillor to assist them in locating his son, whom they subsequently said is a member of the PNP-linked and Spanish Town-based Klansman Gang.

The issue of the councillor’s son is unlikely to arise in the St Catherine Parish Council here Lawrence holds a seat. Mayor of Spanish Town and council chairman Dr Andrew Wheatley says he does not see it as relevant to the Council’s business.

Klansman gang is one of the two criminal outfits in Spanish Town which for years have been involved in a bloody feud for control of the extortion racket in the former Jamaican capital. The other is the One Order gang, which supports the opposition Jamaica Labour Party.

Mayor Wheatley said the matter was not one into which he wanted the Council to be drawn.

“It is not he (Lawrence) who is wanted, but his son, who is an adult,” said the mayor.

“As a father and as a man, he has to deal with that. He is not delinquent in his duties as councillor. It doesn’t concern the council,” he said.

Lawrence told the party, said Campbell, that he has “not seen his son in months”, and that he had never lived with his son, who was raised by his mother.

“He was very open and cooperative on the matter,” Campbell noted. “We don’t have any reason not to support him and he still functions within the (party) organisation.”

Meanwhile, Campbell, speaking for the PNP, asserted that recent angry demonstrations over the police killing of Klansman leader Donovan ‘Bulbie’ Bennett, would have no effect on the outcome of the party’s presidential elections, expected by April next year.

Last week, residents of several St Catherine communities supportive of the ruling party, vented their anger at the killing of Bennett, by blocking roads in Spanish Town, and attacking the police and others.

Some directed their resentment at minister of national security, Dr Peter Phillips by burning T-shirts bearing his image. They also had harsh words for Member of Parliament Sharon Hay-Webster, who is supporting Dr Phillips in his bid to succeed P J Patterson as PNP president and subsequently prime minister.

Hay-Webster has said she is confident of winning back their favour.

Bennett, who was wanted for more than a decade by the police, was killed at a house in Tanaky, near Rock River in Clarendon in what the police say was a shoot-out.

“The demonstration was in support of Bennett, and not against Dr Phillips or the MP,” said Campbell.

“There is no denying that some of the demonstrators are PNP supporters as they were in possession of various party paraphernalia (but) I don’t know that the Spanish Town incident has anything to do with the presidential race.”