Cop charged in porn case

A police officer is currently before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court following allegations that he is part of a conspiracy to obtain money from a dancehall producer in order not to leak pornography online.

The allegations were shared on Thursday when the cop, Dave McLish, who is also a pastor, appeared before Senior Parish Judge Sanchia Burrell with his co-accused Jayanne Boothe. McLish and Boothe, an architectural student at the University of Technology, Jamaica, are charged on an indictment for conspiracy to defraud, extortion, unlawful use of an electronic device available for the commission of an offence and use of computer for malicious communication.

It is alleged that on January 14, the complainant received WhatsApp messages demanding US$8,000 in order not to have explicit videos and photos of himself and his girlfriend shared online. On February 1, the complainant was contacted again and informed that the videos were shared on social media. The court heard that sometime during February, the complainant transferred $50,000 to an account associated with McLish, which was then sent via Lynk platform to Boothe's account. An additional $20,000 was sent sometime thereafter to McLish but an attempt to transfer the funds to Boothe was blocked by the bank.

Neither McLish nor Boothe entered a plea when they attended court on Thursday.

"Haven't we shared enough to know that we don't need to record ourselves? You don't need to know a person you know, they just need to hack into your devices," Burrell reasoned.

The matter was adjourned until July 2 for mention.