The man who said he stabbed Anglican priest, Father Richard Johnson, because he was holding him down on a bed and forcing him to be intimate with him was yesterday sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

Prince Vale, 24, also called 'Bum Bum', a mason of Tommy Hill district in Stony Hill, St Andrew, was charged with murder, but on January 14 the jury found him guilty of manslaughter by reason of provocation.

Supreme Court judge, Norma McIntosh, in sentencing Vale, told him that it was "greed" that landed him in his predicament. The judge said Prince was aware of the priest's sexual preference, and after watching pornography in the living room he then went into the priest's bedroom.

Sexual preference

"What did you expect when you left the living room and went into the bedroom with the man who you said you knew about his sexual preference?" the judge queried before sentencing Vale.

The Crown, represented by attorney-at-law Anthony Pearson and prosecutors Dirk Harrison and Kemar Henry, led evidence that the priest was stabbed several times at his home at the Anglican church rectory, Stony Hill, on the night of November 12, 2006.

Vale told the police during an interview and in his unsworn statement in the Home Circuit Court that the priest was forcing him to be intimate with him and he stabbed him. He said he defended himself against an assault on his body.

Defence lawyers Melrose Reid and Casie Jean Graham had asked the judge to impose a non-custodial or a short sentence on Vale. She said the deceased was a much bigger man than Vale, and referred to a case in which the Court of Appeal had reduced a sentence from 15 years to three years, based on that fact. Reid also referred to the social enquiry report which stated that people in the community said Vale was hard-working and of good character.