KINGSTON, Jamaica — Defence attorney Christopher Townsend says recently convicted client Noel Maitland maintains his innocence and is invested in finding out the circumstances behind the disappearance of girlfriend Donna-Lee Donaldson.

Speaking outside the Home Circuit Court on Friday, moments after Maitland was sentenced to life in prison for Donaldson’s murder, Townsend told reporters: “You’ll remember from the case started, he has been one of the persons that was vigilant in trying to pursue where [the body] is and what happened, I mean what occurred. You will recall the evidence that he was the one who went to look at the video camera.”

Townsend said he did not think Maitland’s feelings had changed.

The defence attorney also reflected on comments by the judge that Maitland had a right to maintain his innocence, noting that the statement came following the prosecution’s attempt to allow Maitland to say “what in effect would have been a confession to say ‘yes I did it and I am sorry that I did it.”

Townsend said he was in agreement with the judge who stopped the prosecution from going further.

“For them [prosecution] to say there was no remorse based upon that would-be confession, that’s wrong, the judge would not be entitled to consider that,” he said.

Townsend shared that Maitland had expressed remorse about the situation.

“What we advanced was that in the report, he did say that the circumstances as [they] presented themselves has presented difficulties for not only his family but the family of Donna-Lee and those circumstances were uncomfortable for him at the very least, and so from that perspective there would have been remorse,” Townsend said.

Maitland was sentenced to life imprisonment on the murder charge with the possibility of parole after 32 years and four months, and sentenced to two years for the charge of preventing the lawful burial of a corpse.

READ: Maitland gets life sentence, 32 years before parole eligibility

(Video: Joseph Wellington)