Rape conviction upheld by Court of Appeal

Levi Jackson

Earlier in the newscast we reported on a number of rulings handed down by the Court of Appeal.  The justices also dealt with the appeal of a man found guilty of raping a mother of four and who was sentenced to twelve years behind bars.  Forty year old Levi Jackson appealed the Supreme Court’s decision but today the Court of Appeal affirmed the verdict and upheld the sentence.  The incident occurred on August twenty-seventh 2007 when Jackson stopped to offer a mother of four a lift home from mile five on the Western Highway.  The woman had just left work at Old Belize and was waiting on the roadside when Jackson, her former co-worker, offered her a ride.  But instead of taking her home, he drove her to a feeder road in Hattieville where he beat, threatened and then stripped her naked and raped her.  Jackson admitted that he was with the woman but denied raping her.  In court Jackson appeared unrepresented by an attorney while Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez was the respondent.