Appeal court upholds men’s convictions

Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator

The court of Appeal has upheld the convictions of four men, who were found guilty in 2010 of the murders of two of three women, who they had abducted, sexually assaulted and thrown into a sewage pit near Newport West, St. Andrew.

The women were abducted from a bar near Tinson Pen on October 20, 2005.

One of them managed to climb out of the pit.

She reported her ordeal to the police.

The other women, Simone Vernon and Catherine Webb, did not survive.

The convicted men are Alton Heath, Desmond Kennedy, Marlon Duncan and Chadwick Gordon also called ‘Mooney’.

Gordon, who was said to be mastermind behind the plot was sentenced to hang.

The other three men were each sentenced to life imprisonment with an order they should not be eligible for parole before they have served 35 years.

The court of appeal sent back Gordon’s case for resentencing, as the court said the Crown did not ask for the death penalty at the trial.

The murders were said to be a reprisal for another murder in 2005.

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