Family relates terrifying ordeal of being tied up, robbed

AN ACCOUNT of how two gangsters held a family at gunpoint, tied them up, and robbed them at their Clarendon home on July 28, 2017, was yesterday related in the trial for reputed gang leader Uchence Wilson and his 23 alleged cronies at the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

The witness, who operates a shop and bar, said the gunmen stole two firearms belonging to her and her daughter, an unknown amount of cash, shoes, pants, three cell phones, and an iPad.

She said one of the men, described as tall and slim, instructed her to remove shoelaces from pairs of sneakers in her room, which they used to tie up her daughter, her boyfriend, and her.

According to the robbery victim, the men then emptied the drawers in her house where they found kerchiefs, which they used to stuff the mouths of her boyfriend and daughter.

The men, she said, then left the premises.

POLICE TESTIMONY

Earlier in the proceedings, a detective sergeant attached to the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch said they chased accused Stephenson Bennett through a cane field in St Catherine before he was accosted.

The policeman testified that Bennett promised to take them to reputed gang leader Uchence Wilson.

Another policeman also testified to conducting an interview with Wilson at the Kingston Public Hospital, where the alleged gang leader lied about being shot while on a visit in the Maxfield, St Andrew, area.

Wilson and his 23 alleged cronies are being tried for breaches of the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act 2014, commonly referred to as the anti-gang legislation, for crimes allegedly committed between 2015 and 2017.

They are also being tried for breaches of the Firearms Act.