Launtia Cuff, STAR Writer

A St Elizabeth man was on Wednesday transferred from police lock-up to a high-security facility, for witness tampering, when he appeared in the Santa Cruz Resident Magistrate's Court on a rape charge.

Marcent Ramsay was taken into custody after Resident Magistrate Sonya Wint-Blair ordered an immediate transfer to the Horizon Adult Correctional Facility because she considered Ramsay a high-risk prisoner and said she believed he had too much access at the Black River lock-up.

This decision was made after a letter, which was certified by a justice of the peace, and said to be from the complainant in the case, was sent to the court. The accused man claimed he had been in contact with the complainant while in lock-up.

RM Wint-Blair said that though the complainant had not been attending court on each occasion Ramsay appeared, there was information about the complainant being relayed to the court by the accused or his father.