Donavan Ricketts, a 38-year-old minibus operator of Free Grass district, was arrested and charged with carnal abuse by the Manchester police for performing a sexual act with a minor child.

Ricketts, who is married and the father of two children, is alleged to have visited the home of the 15-year-old victim late last month and enticed her to go off with him. According to a police report, while the young victim was with him, he had sexual intercourse with her before returning her home.

The young girl shared her ordeal with her brother who visited the Mandeville Police Station where he saw a picture of the perpetrator hanging on a wall and alerted the police.

Ricketts, who was released on bail Wednesday, is scheduled to appear in the Mandeville Resident Magistrate's Court later this month when a trial date will be set.

- Angelo Laurence

- Cecelia Grant-Francis, the former principal of Kilsyth Primary and Infant School, was honoured during a function put on by the community, colleagues and students at the James Hill Baptist Church, outside Spaldings, on Wednesday.

Mrs. Grant-Francis, who is now the principal of Porus Primary and Junior High School, was lauded by numerous persons for her commitment to the teaching profession as well as her ability to bring the community together.- A.L.

Lloyd Douse, 82-year-old farmer of Lincoln, died after falling face down near a tank at his home on Wednesday evening.

The Gleaner understands that Douse had a dispute with his grandson at the home when the latter went to fetch water from the tank.

Douse is alleged to have told the grandson that it was "dry weather" and went to turn off the pipe to the tank. He, however, fell down, hitting his nose in the process, and the grandson, assisted by a family member, lifted him up and placed him on a bed in the house where he died shortly after. The body was removed to the St. Ann's Bay Hospital morgue and the grandson taken to the Claremont Police Station for questioning.

- Leslie McLean

The last in the series of 22 public consultations on reform of the Jamaican justice system was held at the Old Marina in Port Antonio on Tuesday.

They were held across the country to engage members of the public, as well as key justice system stakeholders, to gather information on the problems, concerns and opportunities facing the justice system in Jamaica. Among those in attendance were justices of the peace, members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, repre-sentatives of various business and civic organisations in Portland and members of the general public.

- JIS

- Based on the enormity of the evidence on file, a preliminary enquiry date has been scheduled despite the absence of a DNA report for Adrian Forrester, who is charged with the murder of an Australian tourist found inside his Montego Bay hotel room last year.

The 32-year-old St. James man was remanded during his hearing in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Thursday, and will return to court on May 11. Forrester has been in custody since November 9 last year.

He had previously absconded bail for an outstanding case of arson in which it is alleged that he burnt down his girlfriend's house.

- Western Bureau

- Superintendent Steve McGreggor, head of the St. James Police Division, says murders in the western parish, which gained notoriety as the homicide capital of Jamaica last year, are trending downwards.

"In April last year, we had 19 murders and we only have six to date," he stated. "If things continue the way they are, at the end of the month we should be way behind where we were last year," he told The Gleaner while attributing the positive turn-around to the deployment of increased personnel in the hot spots of Norwood, Glendevon and Salt Spring communities.

- A one-day workshop for stake-holders within the farming sector in western Jamaica is to be held at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort in Montego Bay on Monday to discuss the way forward for the sector.

According to the president of the St. James Association of Branch Societies of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, Glendon Harris, the removal of prefe-rential treatment in the European Union (EU) for farm products from the Caribbean region has brought about the need for these workshops across the island.

He said the EU has granted a sum of money to assist displaced farmers and, as such, proper planning has to be put in place towards the utilisation of those funds.