Attorney raises questions about possible trafficking of Donna-Lee Donaldson
KINGSTON, Jamaica—Attorney-at-law Larry Smith, King’s Counsel, on Thursday raised the possibility that missing social media influencer Donna-Lee Donaldson could have been a victim of trafficking.
Donaldson has not been seen since July 12, 2022 and is presumed dead, with police constable Noel Maitland, her boyfriend, facing charges of murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse in relation to her disappearance.
When Maitland’s trial resumed in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston on Thursday, Smith, who is one of five attorneys representing him, cross-examined a detective inspector, asking him to confirm whether there was a trafficking in persons unit within the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
When the detective inspector answered in the affirmative, Smith asked him if he would agree that he did not check with the trafficking in persons unit during the investigations. The policeman admitted that he didn’t.
Smith also probed whether the detective inspector had ever encountered circumstances of claims of people travelling in vehicles labelled taxis being used to abduct people.
In earlier testimony, the detective inspector told the court that during the course of the investigations, Kathanya Smith, the mother of Maitland’s child, was placed on a watch list which would trigger a notification each time she left or entered the island.
The detective said that he was made aware at some point during the investigations that she left Jamaica and did not return.
He said she was placed on the watch list because she was a person of interest in the case. However, despite the police requesting a statement from her, she never gave one before she left Jamaica.
The detective told the court that throughout the course of the investigations, their hope was to find Donaldson alive.
When Smith asked the detective inspector if he was aware of a possible sighting of Donaldson in Old Harbour, St Catherine, on July 17, 2022, the cop responded that information was received that someone fitting the description of Donaldson was seen.
The trial continues on Monday.
