A 29-YEAR-OLD man who was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment at hard labour for raping a 16-year-old girl was yesterday freed by the Court of Appeal which found that because of weaknesses in the Crown's case the judge should have withdrawn the case from the jury.
Junior Martin, machinist, of Fuller district, Granville, St. James, had appealed against his conviction and sentence.
Attorney-at-law Leroy Equiano who represented Martin on appeal, argued that the identification evidence was weak and as such should not have been left to the jury. Also, he argued that the judge should have upheld the no-case submission made at the end of the Crown's case.
In response to questions posed by the Court of Appeal as to the judge's comments on "fleeting glance", Mr. Equiano argued that the judge in finding that the complainant's identification amounted to nothing more than a fleeting glance should have withdrawn the case from the jury.
The court comprising Mr. Justice Henderson Downer, Mr. Justice Donald Bingham and Mr. Justice Clarence Walker in allowing the appeal, held that once the judge found that the identification amounted to a fleeting glance, then it was a matter of law on which the judge should have decided that the case should not go to the jury. The court found that the complainant in making her report did not give a description of the man who raped her.
Evidence was given at the trial that at about 7:30 p.m. on September 10, 1993, the complainant was travelling in a taxi when Martin who was also a passenger in the taxi, ordered her out. She said she did not know Martin before that day. He forced her into a bus and later ordered her from the bus. He took her to a house where he raped her. She managed to escape and sought refuge at a house nearby. Martin came to the house and told the woman there that she was his wife and they were having differences. Two men chased Martin from the house and the matter was reported to the police. The complainant said one year after the incident she saw Martin in Montego Bay and she left her sister to watch him until she returned with the police. When she returned Martin had left. In December 1996, she saw Martin and she called the police and Martin was arrested and charged.
Martin, in an unsworn statement, denied committing the offence. He said the first time he knew anything about the incident was when he was arrested and charged.
