By Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter A MAN who was serving a seven-year prison sentence for rape was freed yesterday after DNA tests proved that the did not commit the offence.
After 24-year-old Neville Williams, mechanic of Maryland near Gordon Town, St. Andrew, was convicted in May 2001, he asked his lawyers, Dr. Randolph Williams and Andrea Bickhoff-Benjamin, to assist him in getting DNA tests because he was innocent.
The lawyers contacted the Government Forensic Laboratory and were informed by Sherron Brydson, government analyst, that DNA tests were conducted on clothes allegedly belonging to Williams and the complainant in 2000.
APPEAL
Williams had appealed against his conviction and sentence and Dr. Williams applied to the Court of Appeal for fresh evidence to be adduced from Miss Brydson during the hearing of the appeal. He was in prison awaiting the outcome of his appeal.
The DNA tests and certificate, as well as an affidavit given by Ms. Brydson, were tendered in court. Ms. Brydson gave evidence on Wednesday before the Court of Appeal. She said in November 2000, she received a pair of panties and a pair of underpants from Detective Corporal C. Henry. The items of clothing had semen stains on them and she conducted DNA tests from the samples taken from them. "I have compared the eight markers in the DNA profile derived from the two samples taken from the panties with DNA profile derived from two samples taken from the underpants and the profiles are different and do not match," she said in her affidavit dated November 18 this year.
RESULTS
Following Ms. Brydson's evidence, Dr. Williams argued that the results of DNA tests clearly indicated that Williams could not have committed the offence. Dr. Williams commented on the fact that the results of the DNA tests were not presented to the defence. He said although the prosecution did not have the results, there were authorities which said it was the duty of the prosecution to enquire before the trial whether there was scientific evidence in the case and make them available to the defence.
The Court of Appeal, comprising the Hon. Ian Forte President, Justice Henderson Downer and Justice Clarence Walker, after hearing the fresh evidence, allowed the appeal. The court has promised to put its reasons in writing at a later date.
SENTENCE TO 3-YEARS IN PRISON
Walker was convicted in May 2001 of raping a woman in Maryland on the night of November 5, 2000. The woman complained that she hit her head on the rail when Williams was dragging her into a cook shop to rape her. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for rape and three years imprisonment for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The sentences were to run concurrently so Williams would have served seven years.
