A security guard, who in April last year was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for robbing, at gunpoint, a policewoman of her motor car and firearm was freed Tuesday.

The Court of Appeal freed 25-year-old security guard Norman Holmes, of Kitson Town, St Catherine, after it upheld submissions from Delano Harrison, QC, that the identification evidence was weak.

Holmes, who was employed to Ranger Security Company at the time of the incident, was convicted in the Gun Court on April 10 last year of charges of illegal possession of firearm and robbery with aggravation.

The policewoman, who is a special constable, testified in the Gun Court that about 9:30 p.m. on November 1, 2007, she was about to enter her motor car at Central Plaza, St Andrew, when two men approached her.

Identification parade

She said Holmes was one of the two men. She also said he had a firearm. The woman cop was forced to sit in the back of the car while the two men sat in the front seats. She alleged that she pleaded with Holmes, who was sitting in the driver's seat, to let her out of the car, but he refused.

The policewoman said that when the car was travelling along Constant Spring Road towards Half-Way Tree, she opened the door and jumped out. She was injured and was taken to hospital.

Holmes was pointed out in an identification parade. He said, in his defence, that he was not involved in the incident.

Harrison submitted before the Court of Appeal that the trial judge acted upon indirect hearsay evidence because there was no evidence before the court that could indicate how a police party went to an address in St Catherine four weeks after the incident to arrest Holmes. He said there must have been some matters upon which the police acted but that information was not before the court.

He also argued that the only description the policewoman gave of her assailant was that he was five feet six inches tall and was wearing a cap with a peak.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com