Child killer pleads guilty
Kayodi Satchell accepts guilt in 2023 murder of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe
DENTAL assistant Kayodi Satchell, after holding out for just over a year since being arrested and charged in connection with the abduction and murder of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe, pleaded guilty to the crime on Tuesday in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston.
On June 8 last year, Rowe was abducted from Braeton Primary School in Portmore, St Catherine. She was later found on Roosevelt Avenue in St Andrew with her throat slashed. She died two days later at Bustamante Hospital for Children and was buried on July 23 last year. Satchell was charged the following month.
Upon learning of Satchell’s guilty plea, Prime Minister Andrew Holness issued a statement congratulating the police for the work they put into the case. Holness said that Jamaica cannot countenance or tolerate such vicious attacks on children.
“After the tragic killing of Danielle, I had advised the then police commissioner that all necessary investigative resources should be mobilised to bring the perpetrator to justice. I commend the police for conducting a thorough investigation and compiling strong evidence which led to the perpetrator being taken into custody and pleading guilty,” the prime minister said.
“My Government remains committed to reducing incidents of violent crimes, particularly against our nation’s children. Upon my return to the island from the UN this [Tuesday] afternoon I was briefed by the commissioner that there is an approximately 17.8 per cent reduction in murders year to date. We will continue to aggressively pursue further significant reductions in murders,” added Holness.
In May this year, the Jamaica Observer reported that Rowe’s mother, Sudiene Mason, had endured almost one year of pain and it didn’t make things any easier for her when she had to look at Satchell in court on May 16 when her daughter would have turned nine.
Mason, along with Rowe’s elder sister, wore blue shirts with images of her to honour her on what would have been a special day had she not been robbed from the family.
They also brought balloons with them, which they had planned to place on Danielle’s grave at Dovecot Memorial Park and Crematorium.
“You wouldn’t understand how I feel. I don’t even know how to answer that question about how I felt when I looked at her [the alleged killer] in court,” Mason said then.
