Editor's note:  The defendant's son contacted us in May 2020 to say that the High Court in Zimbabwe in 2001 had set aside the proceedings against David Jesse as being unfair and rejected any re-trial of the allegations against him.

 

THE TRIAL in Zimbabwe of a man accused of imprisoning his North Yorkshire bride for 14 months has entered its fifth month with the defendant claiming he cannot afford a lawyer.

David Israel Ben Jesse is trying to prove to magistrates in Harare that he is bankrupt so his lawyer can be paid out of public funds.

Jesse denies kidnapping Julie Barker, from Pickering, whom he met through a dating agency. He is also charged with breaching child protection and firearms laws.

At the resumed hearing, he said: "I am unemployed and without any savings. Why won't the court allow me a right to a free trial?"

Jesse said he owned nothing except five tee-shirts, a couple of shorts and a suit. State prosecutors have objected, saying that Ben Jesse claimed last December to be employed as a legal assistant earning Z$20,000 a month.

Earlier in the trial, Miss Barker, 33, told the court Jesse kept her and her 18-month daughter Savannah locked in his Harare home.

She told how she suffered successive rapes and beatings after their relationship soured. Jesse broke her ribs nine times and routinely held a pistol or pump-action shotgun to her head, she said.

She also alleged that Jesse, the head of a private security firm, sexually assaulted and threatened to kill Savannah.

Miss Barker escaped by smuggling a letter to her parents, Peter and Maureen, of Ruffa Lane in Pickering. They contacted Zimbabwean authorities who ordered police to raid Jesse's home, the court heard.

Jesse claims his former wife was promiscuous and an habitual liar.

He was among 10 men whose names she received from the English Rose dating agency, she said.

The hearing continues.

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