Troy residents say system failed victims long before Delroy Coke’s mob killing

WESTERN BUREAU: The detention of a Troy resident linked to the mob killing of convicted sex offender Delroy Coke has stirred fresh fury among locals who argue that the justice system abandoned their district well before this week’s bloodshed.

Among those who turned out on Thursday was Kay*, whose son — now 14 — was sexually assaulted by Coke at age seven. Police have verified that Coke was found guilty in that matter and given a five-year term at the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre.

Kay said villagers begged officials not to permit Coke’s return to Troy once his sentence ended in August 2025, citing danger to residents, especially children. She contends the lasting burden fell on those who were harmed. Her boy, worn down by taunts and constant reminders of the abuse, left the district and later settled in another parish with his father.

“As the victim who experienced the trauma, my son had to leave the community, but the man who did this to him was allowed to come back,” Kay said.

Her account was echoed by more than 100 demonstrators on Thursday who maintained that the courts and police had neglected survivors while a convicted sexual offender was free to re-enter the same neighbourhood.

Julecia Williams, aunt of 10-year-old Shani Coke — whose rape and killing earlier this week fuelled the district’s anger — still believes Delroy Coke carried out the child’s murder, even though investigators say they lack evidence tying him to the offence.

“Shani was supposed to be spending the summer with me in Falmouth, but she is gone because she was raped and murdered,” Williams said.

Kay further claimed that Coke raped another of her cousins in a separate case in which he allegedly pressed a knife to the woman’s throat. She said that episode also led to his arrest.

Kimberly Dawkins, another resident and a mother of two, said she had dreaded Coke for years. She once went to the Warsop police after spotting him outside her window looking into her house. Rather than being comforted, she said she was called into the station after a relative of Coke’s accused her of threatening him.

“Instead of coming into the community and checking on Coke, they called me to the police station where I was warned,” Dawkins claimed. The episode left her so frightened that she would not let her children play outdoors without an adult. “It could have been any one of my children. I take my son to school every day because I refused to allow him to walk through the community while Coke had access to our roads,” she said.

Dawkins held that although people had voiced worry about Coke many times, the authorities never properly answered those fears.

Kay, Williams and Dawkins all argued that five years for sexually assaulting a child was far too light. “The victims were being punished instead of the perpetrator,” Williams said.

Thursday’s protest came after police arrested their neighbour Maxwell Henry on suspicion of taking part in Coke’s mob killing. Strain deepened when investigators named two more residents as persons of interest in the assault.

Shani’s relatives continue to voice the community’s sorrow. Her father, Ashton Coke, earlier told The Gleaner he cannot shake the memory that his daughter left home for a nearby shop and never came back. Merle Williams, the grandmother who brought Shani up from birth, described to The Gleaner the desperate hunt that began when the child did not return. Neighbours joined the search before Shani’s body was found in bushes close by.

Though Coke was not observed carrying out the crime, residents, drawing on his past, concluded he was responsible and attacked him, killing him.

*Kay is a pseudonym used to shield her son’s identity.