The man charged with the murder of Anglican priest, Father Richard Johnson, wept openly in court yesterday as he begged the jury for a chance to help his mother.

Prince Vale, 25-year-old labourer of Stony Hill, St Andrew, said in an unsworn statement from the dock that it was not his intention to kill the priest.

The priest was stabbed several times at his home at the Anglican church rectory at Stony Hill on November 12, 2006. The medical evidence showed that two of the stab wounds to the chest were fatal.

Gave him trousers

Vale said the priest telephoned him on the day of the incident and he went to the rectory shortly before 9 p.m. He said the priest let him in, and after they went upstairs, the priest gave him a pair of trousers. He tried it on, but it could not fit him, so he gave it back to the priest who said he was going get another pair for him.

The priest returned to the room and pushed him from behind on to the bed, Vale said. Allegations are that the priest was forcing him to be intimate with him and he used his ratchet knife to slash the priest on his foot. He said the priest squeezed his throat and it was at that time he stabbed the priest and then pushed him off him.

He said he was not a killer, but at the time of the incident, "my mind was trapped, my body was trapped; I did not intend to kill anybody".

He told the jury that crime was destroying Jamaica and he was asking for a chance to excel so he could contribute to the country.

Supreme Court judge Norma McIntosh is presiding at the trial, which began last week Wednesday in the Home Circuit Court.