MONTEGO BAY, St James — Sixteen members of the religious group Qahal Yahweh walked free from the St James Parish Court on Wednesday after a judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a case against them on child endangerment-related charges.
The ruling came more than two years after the trial began in April 2024, with Presiding Parish Court Judge Kaysha Grant-Pryce upholding a no-case submission made by defence attorneys Peter Champagnie and Samoi Campbell.
The defendants had been charged under the Child Care and Protection Act and the Education Act following police operations at the group’s compound in Montego Bay, St James, in 2023.
In their submission, the defence argued that the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the allegations against the accused. They contended that while references were made to unsanitary conditions at the compound, the evidence did not meet the legal threshold required to prove that the children’s health had been endangered.
The attorneys also pointed out that the identities of the children allegedly affected were never established during the trial and argued that the school operating at the compound had received provisional approval from the relevant authorities.
The charges stemmed from two police raids conducted in June 2023. During the first operation on June 7, authorities removed 23 children, aged between one and 17 years, from the compound and placed them in state care. A second operation on June 30 resulted in the arrest of the 16 defendants.
Over the course of the trial, the court heard evidence from six witnesses, including a former member of the group, three representatives from the Child Protection and Family Services Agency, an assistant registrar from the Ministry of Education’s Independent Schools Branch, and the investigating officer.
The religious group first attracted national attention in 2019 when police removed six children, including a pregnant 16-year-old girl, from the compound during a separate intervention.
With the court’s ruling that there was no case for the defendants to answer, all 16 accused have been discharged.
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