WESTERN BUREAU:

A 31-year-old policeman who has been charged in connection with the June 2007 kidnapping of a 44-year-old man at Bogue Village in Montego Bay, St James, is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.

Const. Omar Gordon was formally charged on Tuesday with conspiracy to kidnap and breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, following a ruling by the director of public prosecutions.

Constable Gordon reportedly turned himself over to the Montego Freeport Police Station on March 11, after his colleagues expressed an interest in speaking to him in relation to the kidnapping of Howard Timothy Pattico, who has not been seen since.

"He (Gordon) went in with his attorney and at this time he is being held at an undisclosed location," Assistant Commissioner of Police Leslie Green, head of the Organised Crime Unit, told The Gleaner.

Couple robbed

Police reports are that on Wednesday, June 13 last year, Pattico and a woman were at his house in Bogue Village when men armed with guns and wearing bullet-proof vests and caps marked 'POLICE' entered the house and robbed the couple of an undetermined sum of money. They took Pattico with them.

The kidnappers sped away in a getaway car, which was allegedly driven by Constable Gordon.