Rape accused tells court: ‘I was there, but I’m innocent’

The man accused of raping a female student at a secondary school two years ago was adamant on Thursday that while he was on the premises, he did not commit the offence.

“I never went to that school and had sex with no young girl. I don’t look at children that way,” Jamel Lorenzo Hunte declared as he addressed the nine-member jury in the No. 3A Supreme Court.

He is accused of having sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 14, who was not his spouse, on June 15, 2023.

In an unsworn statement from the dock, the resident of Waterman Road, Green Hill, St Michael, said that on the day in question, he took his son to school around 8:30 a.m., caught a Speightstown van from Baxter’s Road, and got off in Trents, St James, and went through the gates of Frederick Smith Secondary School.

He recalled telling a female security guard that he was there to see the principal and being directed to the office. While there, he spoke to a lady who informed him that the principal was in a meeting and he could wait or come back at another time.

Hunte said that he conversed with an officer and then walked upstairs.

“There had a fella on the balcony undoing his hair, so I talked to him and asked him a couple questions about the school and how it is running. I leave and walk around, look in a couple of classrooms and head my way upstairs. I saw some children standing by another balcony, and me and the children talk also. I spend about roughly five minutes there, and I leave there and walked back from where I came and went round the school and leave the school,” Hunte claimed.

Hunte told the court that as he was heading down Trents, a red car approached with three people inside, including the principal. He said the principal asked several questions, including whether he had been on the school compound and why he had left without speaking to him.

“The principal asked, ‘Did you know you were trespassing?’ and I tell he, ‘I went to the school and if I trespassed, I sorry bout dat’. I realise that he was coming to me and I ended up telling him that he has me feeling uncomfortable. I trespass wrongfully because I got permission from the two guards, but my mistake that I make was just to walk around the school without getting permission. That was the mistake I made — walking the school, without permission from anyone,” he stated.

Hunte said he walked away, but when the principal and guard continued to walk behind him, he turned around and went back to them and at no point did the principal mention anything about a sexual assault. A police vehicle subsequently arrived, and he was arrested and taken to the Holetown Police Station.

His voice breaking as he spoke about how the charge has impacted him, Hunte stated “I did not rape nobody. I don’t know this girl. This case has caused me to lose three jobs…. I know in my heart I did not commit this crime.”

The prosecution team of Principal State Counsel Rudolph Burnett, State Counsel Anastacia McMeo-Boyce, and State Counsel Treann Knight, as well as defence attorney Ricardo Harrison are expected to make closing arguments on Monday.

Justice Anthony Blackman presides.