RUSHON HAMILTON, the police constable sentenced to life imprisonment in March for the murder of 14-year-old schoolgirl Jhaneel Goulbourne, has filed an appeal.

Hamilton is contending, in documents filed with the Court of Appeal, that his conviction is “not justified under the law based on the conflicting and contrasting testimonies of the witnesses” during his trial last October.

Hamilton was sentenced by Justice Lloyd Hibbert in the Home Circuit Court on March 1 to life imprisonment. He’s eligible for parole after 35 years.

The sentence followed his conviction by a panel of jurors for the October 2008 murder of Goulbourne, who was abducted from her home in Harbour View, St Andrew.

Her abduction came after she made a report that resulted in Hamilton being charged with carnal abuse.

During the trial, more than one witness testified that Hamilton confessed to murdering the teen at sea and dumping her body.

However, Hamilton denied the allegations and professed his innocence during a statement from the prisoners’ dock.

But in his grounds for appeal, filed on his behalf by attorney Valerie Neita-Robertson and Peter Champagnie, Hamilton said that the prosecution’s main witness wrongfully identified him as the person who made the confession.

He said the prosecution had failed to present “any material, forensic or scientific evidence” to link him to the “alleged crime”; that the evidence and testimonies upon which the trial judge relied to direct the jury lacked facts and credibility, thus rendering the verdict unsafe in the circumstances; and that the case was entirely based “on a confession from a cellmate whose motives are unknown and… testimonies are subject to fabrication”.

Hamilton, who is serving his sentence at the Tower Street Correctional facility, has requested to be present during the appeal hearing.

— Paul Henry