A St. Catherine based church deacon, who reportedly impregnated a 13-year-old girl in 2016, pleaded guilty to having sexual intercourse with a person under 16 years of age, and was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

The accused man received his sentence in the St. Catherine Circuit Court from Justice Lorna Shelly Williams, yesterday.

The 52-year-old man is said to have attended the same church as the 13-year-old complainant and her mother.

He reportedly sexually assaulted the child, who became pregnant, and then took her to a medical facility to do an abortion.

The police were called by the doctor, but the accused man ran out of the office before the cops arrived.

He eluded the law until June 2017, when he was held on the compound of the Spanish Town Hospital, where he had gone to visit a patient.

He was subsequently charged by the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (Cisoca).

The accused had pleaded guilty during sentence reduction day at the St. Catherine Circuit Court.