Jamaica Gleaner

Pastor fathered child of 12-y-o girl

... DNA test proves

- Livern Barrett/ Senior Gleaner Writer

A BOMBSHELL DNA report has concluded that Kenneth Blake, the Kingston pastor facing criminal charges for allegedly having sex with a 12-year-old girl, is the father of the child she gave birth to last year.

The explosive report was prepared by the government forensic laboratory and served on Blake’s attorney, Abel-Don Foote, in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Monday.

Blake, who is the pastor of Harvest Temple Apostolic Church, located on Slipe Pen Road, is to return to court on April 16 for a hearing to determine whether the five sex-related charges filed against him should be tried in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston. Foote declined to comment for this story. However, according to sources, he indicated in court on Monday that he needed time to “take further instructio­ns from his client”.

The clergyman, during his first court appearance last August, insisted, through his attorney, that he did not impregnate the minor and voluntaril­y offered to give investigat­ors DNA samples he said would prove he was not the father of the then unborn child. But according to sources, the DNA report concluded that there is a 99.9 per cent chance that Blake could not be excluded as the father.

The alleged victim, who turns 15 years old later this year, gave birth to a boy on November 30 last year.

The Gleaner first reported that Blake, 56, was arrested on August 15 last year by investigat­ors from the Centre for the Investigat­ion of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse and charged with rape, forcible abduction, grievous sexual assault, sexual touching and sexual intercours­e with a person under 16 years old.

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