MoBay’s Qahal Yahweh defendants to return to court next year
Published:Saturday | December 7, 2024 | 12:07 AM
WESTERN BUREAU:
The trial involving 16 members of the controversial Montego Bay-based Qahal Yahweh religious group has been postponed to February 7 next year, following the absence of their attorney during a scheduled appearance in the St James Parish Court yesterday.
Presiding Parish Judge Kaysha Grant-Pryce set the new date after being informed by attorney-at-law Michael Hemmings that King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie, representing the defendants, was unable to attend the hearing.
The accused – Jevaughn Thompson, Omar Thompson, Christopher Anderson, Nekeisha Harding, Derrick Clarke, Alicia Meadley, Fabian Nelson, Franchain Paris, Jodian Spence, Jose Foskin, Oral Spence, Rayon Letman, Ingrid Williams, Vera Woodley, Melisha Thompson, and Roanalee Maitland – had their bails extended.
The group is on trial for alleged breaches of the Child Care and Protection Act and the Education Act, stemming from a police raid on their compound in Paradise, Norwood, St James, on June 30, 2023. That operation followed a prior raid weeks earlier, during which 23 children, aged one to 17, were removed from the premises and placed in state care.
The children taken into custody during the June 30 operation were released from state care on November 17, 2023. Some were reunited with their parents, while others were placed in the care of relatives.
Since the trial began on April 8 this year, four prosecution witnesses, including three officers from the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and a former member of the Qahal Yahweh group, have testified. Three additional prosecution witnesses are expected to testify when the trial resumes in February.
UNHYGIENIC CONDITIONS
During the last court session, on November 22, a CPFSA officer testified about the living conditions at the compound on the day of the June 7, 2023 raid. She described cramped, unhygienic conditions, including fly-infested food, small rooms crowded with bunk beds, and an unclean bathroom. She also reported seeing two pregnant teenagers at the premises and observed a man feeding both children and adults with a single large spoon.
On the same day, a former Qahal Yahweh member testified under cross-examination by Champagnie. She admitted to previously describing the group as “very nice” in her statement to the police. In earlier testimony on July 26, she had recounted living conditions at the compound before the June 7 raid, revealing that her family and two other families shared a single room.
The Qahal Yahweh group has faced scrutiny before. In 2019, police removed six children, including a pregnant 16-year-old, from the compound between October 31 and November 5. At the time, the group was under investigation for alleged child marriages, human trafficking, abduction, child abuse, and sexual assault.