The case against convicted sex-offender, now deceased Pastor Vincent Anthony Lowe, came up for hearing in the No. 4 Supreme Court yesterday.
It will be formally closed when his death certificate is presented to the court.
Lowe, 71, head of Prayer Palace Ministries, of Mount Standfast, St James, was found guilty, on March 14, of indecently assaulting the complainant, then 16 now 30, between January 1, 2011, and March 8, 2013, while at Holder’s Hill, St James; indecently assaulting her at Mount Standfast between January 1, 2011, and March 8, 2013; indecently assaulting her again at Mount Standfast as she lay in a bedroom between those same dates, and then on March 8, 2013, while she was in the church’s vehicle at Wanstead Drive, St James.
The matter was prosecuted by Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis who, in her submissions, had asked the court to sentence Lowe to four of the maximum five years for his crimes. She argued a year for aggravating features should be added to the starting sentence.
Lowe was represented by Senior Counsel Angella Mitchell-Gittens, who was scheduled to make her submissions on sentence and mitigation yesterday.
However, Lowe died on August 9 while on remand at Dodds Prison. He had been rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after complaining of feeling unwell. He suffered a stroke two months prior.
Yesterday, Mitchell-Gittens told the court she would produce Lowe’s death certificate “so the matter could be formally closed”.
Back in May, the complainant’s father, during his victim impact statement, said the pastor had stolen his daughter’s youth, her innocence and her dignity.
He told Lowe: “I hope you never see your children again. I hope the next time you leave those doors at Dodds Prison you’ll be going some place else, but not home.”
The girl’s mother, in her victim impact statement, described Lowe’s indecent assaults of her daughter as “evil”.
“I see this as evil, not wicked. I see it as pure evil done to my daughter. I say God got you to deal with,” she told him.
“You cannot do a person wrong and then go and speak bad about them,” she said, as she told Lowe he had no one to blame but himself for the situation in which he found himself.
During the trial, Lowe declared he had never indecently assaulted the girl, but only admitted to “touching” her after her mother told him if he confessed, the matter would end.
