Persaud was testifying on Friday in the Home Circuit Court at the trial of 25-year-old labourer Prince Vale of Tommy Hill district, near Stony Hill, St Andrew.

Fatal stabbing

The priest was fatally stabbed at his home at the Anglican church rectory in Stony Hill on the night of November 12, 2006.

Persaud said he performed the post-mortem on November 14, 2006, and he found six stabs wounds and five incised wounds on the body. The stab wounds were in the region of the upper-front chest.

He said two of the injuries to the chest were fatal and they were inflicted with moderate to severe degree of force. Death would have occurred within three to 15 minutes after they were inflicted. He said a ratchet knife could have inflicted the injuries. One of the fatal wounds punctured the left chamber of the heart, while the other went through the seventh rib and punctured the upper part of the left lung.

Vale, who is being represented by defence lawyers Melrose Reid and Casie Jean Graham, is contending that he stabbed the priest when the priest was fighting him to be intimate with him.

The Crown, represented by attorney-at-law Anthony Pearson and prosecutors Dirk Harrison and Kamar Henry, is alleging at the trial, which began last Wednesday, that on November 12, 2006, while Vale was in the priest's bedroom, he stabbed him several times.

Justice Norma McIntosh is presiding at the trial which continues on Monday before a 12-member jury.