Constable Noel Maitland pulled out a handkerchief and wiped tears streaming down his face after the seven-member jury on Thursday found him guilty of murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse in relation to the July 12, 2022 disappearance of his 24-year-old girlfriend Donna-Lee Donaldson.

At first he sat upright in the dock as he wiped the tears. But after looking around the courtroom and realising that eyes were glued to him, he held his head down and continued to wipe his face.

After the jurors completed their duty, trial Judge Leighton Pusey asked Maitland to stand, before formally announcing the verdict to him. During that time Maitland scowled, his eyebrows tightly knitted.

As he stepped down from the dock and was about to be handcuffed before being led out of the courtroom, he started crying again with loud sobs.

He uttered no words, but, according to one of his attorneys, Christopher Townsend, who spoke to the Jamaica Observer afterwards, Maitland shed tears because he was certain of his innocence.

“He is very teary-eyed. He knows he is innocent and he will have to take another opportunity to seek justice at the Court of Appeal. Yes, he was able to speak to me,” Townsend said.

“This is a serious blow to him because he knows he is innocent,” Townsend added.

“We are a bit surprised by the verdict. It is a verdict, and it is what it is. Of course, there is always the Court of Appeal, so on to the next level. I have a strong feeling whichever way the verdict went there would have been an appeal. I don’t want to say anything too much yet, but certainly we are concerned about how some of the issues were dealt with. You noticed the summing up was very short, and the jury took some three and a half hours to make a decision,” the attorney added.

Meanwhile, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Claudette Thompson, who was being congratulated for securing a conviction in the case, which was based on circumstantial evidence, said she wasn’t sure if she should accept congratulatory messages. She explained that she was not happy that Donaldson was killed and her body prevented from undergoing a lawful burial.

“It’s not congratulations. I am not sure how I am feeling now,” Thompson said.

After taking a short moment to think about the situation, Thompson said that she was feeling sad because “it’s almost as if this is a confirmation that Donna-Lee is really gone, so it is not a moment for us to rejoice”.

“It is an acceptance that the jurors, I think, returned the correct verdict. We are comforted by that, but there is no rejoicing, there is no happy, because Donna-Lee is dead. The mother has lost her daughter,” the DPP added, explaining that the prosecution’s team worked hard on the case.

“We always put in a lot of work, whomever the deceased is and whomever the victim is. This was a team effort,” she said.

Attorney Loriann Tugwell was a member of the DPP’s team.

Apart from Townsend, Maitland was represented by Larry Smith, King’s Counsel; Chadwick Berry; Sanjay Smith; and Kaysian Kennedy-Sherman.

Donaldson was last seen at the Chelsea Manor Apartments in St Andrew where Maitland lived.

In this file photo Constable Noel Maitland enters a police vehicle on exiting the Supreme Court during his murder trial last year. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)

This video grab shows lead defence attorney Christopher Townsend speaking with the media on Thursday after his client Constable Noel Maitland was found found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend Donna-Lee Donaldson. Also photographed are other members of the defecne team Kaysian Kennedy-Sherman and Sanjay Smith. (Video: Jason Cross)

This video grab shows Director of Public Prosecutions Claudette Thompson being interviewed by journalists after Constable Noel Maitland was convicted of murder in the Supreme Court on Thursday. (Video: Jason Cross)

Chelsea Manor apartment complex where Conatable Noel Maitland lived and where his girlfriend Donna-Lee Donald was last seen in July 2022. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)