Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Former Jamaica Defence Force soldier Hugh Wellington, who has been in custody for more than eight years because he was found unfit to plead to a murder charge, was taken to the Home Circuit Court on Monday.

He is in custody because two psychiatrists said he was not fit to plead.

Wellington pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility. However Justice Kay Beckford said she was not accepting the plea until he was examined by another psychiatrist based on the history of the case.

He is charged with the murder of Germaine Esson who was fatally shot in Eastern Kingston on October 28, 1998.

Schizophrenic psychosis

Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Paula Llewellyn, said that between October 2001 and October 30, 2005, psychiatrists Dr. Frank Knight and Dr. Franklin Ottey found that Wellington was suffering from schizophrenic psychosis and was not fit to plead.

She said further that, on November 7, 2003, a jury found that he was unfit to plead and it was ordered that he should receive psychiatric treatment while in custody.

Miss Llewellyn said that, since that time, Wellington was taken to court every six months so that he was not lost in the system. Last year, psychiatrist Dr. Terrence Bernard found that Wellington was fit to plead.

The judge said she needed a detailed psychiatric report before she accepted the plea and then ordered that another psychiatrist should examine Wellington.

Wellington, who is being represented by attorneys-at-law Pamela Shoucair-Gayle and Maria Gayle, is to return to court on February 9.

- barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com