Defence attorney claims Ruddock’s murder confession was coerced

Despite video footage showing murder accused Andre Ruddock comfortably confessing to cutting the throat of 39-year-old Taneka Gardner at Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Albion, St James in 2021, defence attorney Anthony Williams tried on Thursday to establish that his client was forced into giving the confession.

Videos played in court showed a composed Ruddock at a police station in St James admitting to committing the crime. They also showed him subsequently answering 42 questions during a question and answer session. But Williams suggested that it was while Ruddock was still at the church, and in handcuffs, that he was threatened by a detective to confess.

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Williams suggested to that detective, who is a witness in Ruddock’s murder trial in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston, that before his client was taken to the police station he was intimidated, draped in his waist by the detective who he also accused of slapping him, “buffing” him in the chest, and forcing him to confess because a judge would be more inclined to believe the lawman over the accused.