News

Protests continue over the Janice Allen case

A member of the police force barks out orders as members of the advocacy group Jamaicans for Action (JFA) staged a protest in Half Way Tree yesterday to highlight what they dubbed as the injustices in the case involving Janice Allen, a 13-year-old girl who was killed by a policeman's bullet on April 13, 2000 in Trench Town, Kingston. Last week, a jury in Portland returned a not-guilty verdict on the basis of insufficient evidence in the manslaughter of Janice Allen. - Rudolph Brown

THE FALLOUT FROM the Janice Allen case continued yesterday as protests on the handling of the issue spread across the Corporate Area.

Janice Allen, was the 13-year-old girl who was shot and killed by a policeman's bullet in Trench Town, St. Andrew in April 2000. Constable Rohan Allen, the policeman charged with her manslaughter, was freed in the Portland Circuit Court last Monday after the presiding judge ordered that the jury find him not guilty because the Crown was not able to prove its case.

The Crown said in court that key pieces of evidence, including the firearm register and the investigating officer were no longer available. This, and the events that led up to it, weighed heavily on the minds of protestors who stood at the intersection of Hope and Half-Way Tree roads. One man told THE STAR, "It obvious and dis case prove it - police cannot investigate police. Tings like this bound to happen when dem get involved."

"Somebody in this country have to stand up for law and order and justice in this country," said another protester named Annette.

Local human rights organisations that organised the protests have pledged that they will be taking the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.