Cops find missing girl; man to be charged

AN 11-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl who was allegedly abducted by a taxi-driver six weeks ago in Clarendon, was yesterday found by the police in Kingston.

The police said they recovered the child at a tenement yard on Fifth Avenue, Wilton Gardens (Rema).

The man who allegedly kidnapped her was also found at the same premises, hiding under a bed, the police say.

"Although he has not yet been charged, he will be," said Assistant Commissioner Linval Bailey, who led the police operation.

Reports are that the man, Junior Brooks, nicknamed 'Little David', slipped through a police dragnet on Wednesday when he fled with the girl from a house on Payne Avenue, as the police approached. The Hunts Bay police seized his car.

The little girl was snatched from her grandmother, Icilda Madden, on May 11, while visiting Osbourne Store, Clarendon.

According to the police Little David approached Mrs. Madden near the May Pen market, read her palm and convinced her that obeah had been planted in her yard. He offered to dig it up and render harmless, its effects on her family.

After this they travelled with the man to Clarendon for him to give the child a "bath" as protection against "evil spirits".

On the Rock Road near Osbourne Store, the girl was given a "bath" and later accompanied the man to buy food in Osbourne Store. That was the last time Mrs. Madden, who was left at the house to wait, saw them.

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