Cayman Islands to share resources for fighting crime
Cayman Islands Leader of
Government Business,
Kurt Tibbetts
by Norman 'Gus' Thoms
Caribbean Net News Senior Correspondent
E-mail: rc@caribbeannetnews.com
Monday, November 21, 2005
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: The authorities
in the Cayman Islands are looking at the pros and cons of a witness-protection
mechanism involving the Overseas Territories, three of which are in the
Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), as part of a wider programme
allowing for the sharing of resources in the continued fight against crime.
Kurt Tibbetts, Leader of Government Business, made mention of his country's
desire for a regional network to combat crime when he made an address at an
Overseas Territories Consultative Council meeting held recently in London.
The Cayman Islands leader pointed out that the Overseas Territories of the
United Kingdom, "being part of the global village, are being impacted by a
menacing crime trend,” and went on to add that, “accordingly it is incumbent
on us, where legally and otherwise allowed, to partner in the fight against
crime and criminal activity in general.” Talk
of a regional witness-protection programme started back in February this year
during the annual conference of Overseas Territories Attorneys General in
Anguilla.
According to Tibbetts, his Attorney General
Sam Bulgin, also wrote to his British Virgin Islands counterpart,
advocating further discussions on the matter at the Bermuda conference in
2004. The Cayman Islands leader noted that a
number of witnesses fail to give evidence at trials as they are intimidated
and threatened by accused persons. “One way of arresting this worrying trend
is for our criminal justice system to place less reliance on eye-witnesses,
and to foster greater dependence on forensic evidence,” he said.
Mr. Tibbetts stressed the need for increased reliance on forensics in the
gathering of evidence on criminal activity as a strategy to be combined with
his proposed witness protection and went on to indicated that it is his
Government’s aim to share with the members of the territories services of a
state-of-the-art forensic laboratory which is scheduled to be opened here
early next year. Included in this
initiative is the moving of dangerous convicts to an unfamiliar prison
facility in another territory, the exchange on a loan basis of highly trained
police, the sharing of laboratory facilities especially in the field of
forensics and "musical chairs system" for judges and prosecutors.
In pushing his case for the witness protection programme, Tibbetts said that:
“Witnesses are being shot, threatened, or otherwise intimidated by accused
persons and those connected to them. This is a growing problem in the Cayman
Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, BVI, Bermuda and possibly Anguilla as
well." Tibbetts also disclosed that the AGs
of the BVI and the Cayman Islands are also desirous of having the 2006 AGs'
meeting coincide with the Overseas Territories Commissioners of Police Annual
Conference as some are of the view that the closeness of both meetings will
enhance discussions among the two groups responsible for upholding and
enforcing the law in the territories.
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