Odwin murder trial: Dad says daughter never complained about victim

The father of murder accused Romancia Odwin has told the High Court that his daughter never made any complaints to him about fish vendor Ronald Skeete.

Taking the witness stand as Odwin’s murder trial continued in the No. 4 Supreme Court, Roydon Odwin said that he was playing dominoes with other men at his home, when Nat – Zonelle Sobers – ran into the garage.

He said he saw blood on her and realised she had injuries about her body and that she pointed to her shoulder.

The witness told the court that he asked how she had gotten injured and she responded Mancy, which he knew to be his daughter’s nickname.

Questioned about his daughter’s seizures, he stated of knowing that she suffered these between the ages of four and five years old and that she would “fight back” when she was coming out of them and could not remember what had happened.

Saying he was not aware of every time she had a seizure, the father could not recall her having any in 2019 and stated she did not have any in 2020 that he was aware of.

He told the court that Skeete had driven his daughter to work two or three times.

During his cross-examination by defence counsel Sade Harris, he said that his daughter had never complained to him that Skeete had molested her.

Further, he said that she started to speak to him that night.

“From the time she say, ‘Daddy, I gine tell you what happen’; I say ‘I don’t want to hear now. You should’ve come to me before,” he told the court.

Odwin of Whopping, Orange Hill, St James is charged with murdering fish vendor Skeete between July 18 and 19, 2020 and with wounding Sobers with intent to maim, disfigure or disable her and with unlawfully wounding her during the same period.

Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC and State Counsel Paul Prescod are prosecuting in the trial which continues on Thursday before Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell.

(JB)