St Catherine court jails taxi driver Hubert Fletcher for 24 years nine months over student rape

The St Catherine Circuit Court has jailed a 65-year-old taxi driver for 24 years and nine months after he was found to have kidnapped and raped a 19-year-old student.

Hubert Fletcher, a Central Village resident, was sentenced on Friday on counts of rape, forcible abduction, indecent assault, and grievous sexual assault.

On the rape count he drew 24 years and nine months; forcible abduction earned 14 years and nine months; indecent assault 12 years and nine months; and grievous sexual assault another 24 years and nine months.

The terms are concurrent, so the longest single penalty—24 years and nine months—sets his total time inside.

Judges fixed a parole threshold: Fletcher cannot be considered for release until he has completed a minimum of 10 years.

Prosecutors said that on 13 October 2021 he was working a Toyota Probox along the Portmore–Half-Way Tree corridor when the teenager entered the car as a passenger.

Trial evidence indicated that en route he braced an object against her waist, steered off course, and stopped on part of Port Henderson Road people in the area call 'Back Road' in Portmore, then attacked her sexually.

The Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse handled the file; investigators later arrested Fletcher and preferred charges.