LATEST NEWS : Vybz Kartel close to tears.....told the 11-member panel of jurors in the High Court yesterday that his skin bleaching and tattoos were tools of his trade and asked not to be judged by his appearance...... DeeJay and co-accused all plead innocence in murder trial

ENTERTAINER Vybz Kartel, in a plea for his freedom, told the 11-member panel of jurors in the High Court yesterday that his skin bleaching and tattoos were tools of his trade and asked not to be judged by his appearance.

In one of five unsworn statements from the dock by the accused men, Vybz Kartel, asked Justice Lennox Campbell and the jurors to separate Vybz Kartel from Adidja Palmer.

“My Lord, I bleach my skin and I am heavily tattooed also.

My Lord, that is merely superficial, that is the persona of Vybz Kartel, not Adidja Palmer. My Lord, I think you will agree...,” he said.

“Who me?” asked Justice Campbell. “Yes, My Lord, that sometimes a person can be judged by the way they look. My Lord, I am not an alien who came from space and landed on Earth.

I am a normal man. I even have a family, some of which are here today, including my grandmother, cousin and mother-in-law,” Kartel pleaded.

He also contended that the actions of Security Minister Peter Bunting, whom he claimed had taken his music and image to Washington, DC, and declared that the music was glorifying scamming, and had pointed to him during a Unite For Change symposium at Police Officers’ Club last year, while he was awaiting trial on remand, were part of a grand conspiracy against him and his friends. more