A 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.
The charges were filed after the alleged victim gave investigators a detailed statement claiming that Blake began having sex with her at his St Andrew home in 2015 while she was a 12-year-old. It is alleged that during the first encounter. The clergyman forced himself onto her after sending her older sister “downtown to buy some things”.
Following this, according to the girl’s account to investigators, he began rewarding her with gifts to keep quiet about their sexual encounters. However, Blake has denied the allegation and insisted in court that it was part of an extortion attempt by the mother of his accuser.
[“Source-jamaica-gleaner”]
