KINGSTON, Jamaica — Lynden Wellesley, lawyer for the Pentecostal City Mission Church pastor, Paul Hanniford, who was last week sentenced to 20 years in prison for having sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl, says the sentence was “manifestly excessive” and he has advised his client to appeal.

Wellesley was unable to say whether the notice of appeal had already been filed, but said that he had spoken to Hanniford who had expressed an intention to appeal.

The lawyer said the grounds of appeal would be formulated upon perusing the evidence and the summing up of the judge; however, Hanniford will “definitely be appealing the sentence”.

The pastor was sentenced by Justice Lorna Shelly Williams when 55-year-old Hanniford appeared in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

The Pentecostal City Mission Church pastor was on January 24 convicted by a seven-member jury for having sexual intercourse with the girl, who was three years below the age of consent.

The court was told that the minor was a member of the pastor’s Pentecostal City Mission Church and was baptised by him.

Prosecution led evidence that the pastor had sex with the girl while she and her five-year-old brother were at his house after asking him for a “drive-out”.