Constable Noel Maitland was all smiles as he sauntered from the prison dock inside the Home Circuit Court, nodding his head in greeting to his colleagues.
The lawman, who has been in custody since last July in connection with the murder and disappearance of his girlfriend, social media influencer, Donna-Lee Donaldson, 24, was brought before the court for plea and case management hearing.
The young woman was last seen at Maitland’s New Kingston apartment on July 11, last year.
The constable’s seemingly cheerful appearance did not escape Donaldson’s distraught mother, Sophie Lugg, as he was escorted through the corridor to the holding area.
“I am hurting right now and I am also upset, honestly, I am not going to hide it. Seeing Noel Maitland just now, Noel has no little sorryness, no little regret, no nothing. He is just walking through the corridor with the cuffs on his hand like a professional, like a dignitary speaking to his colleagues.
“I can’t see this man being locked away for almost a year for a crime like this and he is just the same Noel,” said the grieving mother, who was flanked by her sister Jermadeen Lugg, and a supporter, Ivena Lewin, as she sat in the back of a motorcar outside the court after the case was mentioned.
Earlier during the sitting, Maitland was remanded after the plea and case management hearing was postponed to November 1.
The hearing, which was scheduled to start yesterday, failed to proceed after the court heard that three statements were still outstanding.
Two of the statements are to be collected from two policemen while the other is to be collected from a security guard, who the court heard is yet to be located.
Justice Vinette Graham-Allen ordered that the statements be submitted to the prosecution and disclosed to the defence on or before October 20.
But Maitland is to return to court on September 20, to renew a bail application.
Lugg, however, expressed frustration at the delay in the pace at which the case is progressing, noting that it is causing her stress and suffering.
“The justice system has enough evidence to put away Noel. The forensic evidence is there, the technology is there, everything they want is there.
“I am not going to be going back and forth with them, dragging this thing out, we need justice like from yesterday. We have to get justice,” she said.
According to the sorrowful mother, whose eyes welled up with tears, she has to be taking 11 pills per day to keep her stress at bay.
“I am dying slowly… . It’s hard, almost a year and all my daughter said to me is ‘Mommy’ when she called me on the 12th of July. She said ‘Mommy, feed China [her dog], don’t worry to walk her later’, it was only after 10 minute with Facetime with her brother that I tried to call this little girl and when her phone refuse to pick up… that was it,” she lamented.
Lugg said that, in the meantime, she was appealing to Maitland to disclose where her daughter’s body is hidden.
“Tell me where the body is!” she demanded. “Jamaicans are superstitious where we put them off to Dovecot or Meadowrest, and even if they can’t hear us or whatever, we know we can go back to the spot and say ‘hi’ or whatever it is.
“But my daughter just disappeared in the wind?”
“Whether he is responsible or not, he is the one who took her from the house. Her blood was placed in his apartment. The forensics have it there to prove that she was in fact in the apartment. So Noel has to talk. If it’s not him, him know who did it.
“She is not a goat and no goat was seen in the apartment on that date,” she added.
Maitland is facing murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse charges.
Donaldson was reported missing on July 13. To date, police have no leads on her body.
The police, however, had indicated that investigations concluded that Donaldson was killed on July 12 between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.
They stated that this was supported by forensic evidence and technology but noted that a motive has not yet been established for the killing.