Crime

(CNS): Following reports of ganja being found hidden in staff offices at the prison last week the Deputy director at Northward said that since December the prison has intensified its efforts to stop drugs from getting inside the prison walls but he described it as a “relentless battle” to combat the smuggling. Daniel Greaves told CNS that the latest haul of drugs was less than an ounce and was found as a result of a search based on intelligence about ganja being hidden in the office. He explained that as the prison authorities clamp down then prisoners are becoming more creative as they try to smuggle drugs into HMP Northward and then to hide it once it’s inside the grounds.

(CNS): A forty year old foreign national has admitted attempting to rob a cash bag from a security guard outside foster’s supermarket in Savannah last year. Calmore Range pleaded guilty to attempted robbery on Friday when he appeared in Grand Court before Justice Seymour Panton. The Spanish speaker was assisted by an interpreter and remanded in custody until his sentencing hearing next month.  Range was charged in December following his arrest at Owen Roberts International where he was trying to leave the country a few days after his foiled robbery attempt.

(CNS): Jeffrey Barnes, who was arrested following an island-wide man hunt last year, has finally been charged in connection with two serious offences. The 32-year-old man from George Town denied raping two different women after he was arraigned in the Grand Court on Friday morning. He has pleaded not guilty to rape, abduction and breaking and entering in connection with two separate incidents that occurred in George Town last year in the space of just over one week. Barnes denied breaking into the home of the first victim and raping her at knife point on 20 October and also denied abducting a 49-year old woman from a bus stop in Prospect and taking her to Admiral’s Landing, where he is accused of also raping her on 29 October.

(CNS): For the second time in a week ganja has been uncovered in staff offices inside Northward Prison. Sources told CNS that an undisclosed amount of the drug was found on Thursday morning in a packet hidden inside the shift commander's office.  CNS also understands that several packets of ganja were recovered from the administrative office in the same building as the prison director’s office last week. Although it is not uncommon for drugs to be found inside the prison, in the possession of prisoners or in their cells as well as around the prison boundary this is the first time that news of the drug being found in staff offices has emerged from inside the facility.

(CNS): The two teenagers convicted last year of the robbery at the Blackbeard’s store in Grand Harbour were found to have handcuffs and pepper spray in their possession that had been stolen from a police officer’s home in an earlier burglary.  Jonathan Welcome (18) and Jordon Powell (19) were sentenced to 6 years for a foiled daylight hold-up at a liquor store after they were apprehended by civilians at the scene. The teenagers were carrying a load shotgun, which failed to fire, as well as pepper spray which they used during the struggle with the civilians who prevented their escape. The court heard Friday that the pepper spray belonged to a serving police officer.

(CNS): A grand court judge warned an accused man Friday that having friends and family call a witness won’t help his situation and is likely to ensure he would remain in custody until his trial. Jonathan Mellard has been charged with wounding and was hoping that the charges against him would be dropped as a result of the main witness withdrawing his complaint. However, the crown revealed that the witness still intended to testify against the accused man despite phone calls made to him to persuade him otherwise. The defendant’s attorney told the court of his intention to apply for bail if the trial was to go ahead but the judge said the calls would not help the defendant’s case.

(CNS): A report conducted by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada into the state of Cayman’s prison system said that there is no evidence minimum sentences reduce crime. Cayman has mandatory minimum sentences for various offences, including a ten year minimum for anyone convicted after trial of possession of an unlicensed firearm. The experts said that local stakeholders had expressed concerns about the impact minimum sentences had on crime prevention and rehabilitation.  The report has recommended an immediate review of the current slate of offences with minimum sentences to determine if it is the most effective way to respond to offending.

(CNS): Three men playing dominoes outside a home in George Town became the latest victims of armed robbers last night. At around 11:40 the players outside the property in Greenwood Drive were approached by two masked men who demanded cash. The robbers approached the three players on foot wearing dark clothing and armed with what appeared to be handguns. The suspects demanded cash and took money from each of the three men before they fled on foot and firing a shot into the air. Police said that no further descriptions of the robbers has yet been provided but confirmed no one was hurt during the tenth stick-up of 2012.

(CNS): A newly published report on the state of the Cayman Islands’ prison system has made more than sixty recommendations on how to address the many problems within the prison system and in particular the growing problem of recidivism. The report, which was commissioned by the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs and undertaken by the institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) found that the rehabilitation programmes have been "decimated”, leaving what the experts say is a crucial part of the prison system completely neglected. In order to stop the prison revolving door, the experts warn that rehab must be considered equally important as keeping prisoners locked up.

(CNS): The family of Kerran 'Kerry-Ann' Baker, who has been missing since last July, are asking the Jamaican government to intervene in the case as they say the RCIPS is stonewalling them. According to a report in the Jamaican Observer, Kerry-Ann’s stepfather, Wilmot Anthony, has issued a public plea for the Jamaican foreign affairs ministry to get in touch with the Cayman Islands to press for answers. Cayman police have stated that they believe Kerry-Ann is dead and although one man was arrested on suspicion of murder in November, he was released and no charges were brought. Anthony said the family needed the help of the Jamaican government to stop the investigation dying out.

(CNS): A George Town grocery store became the latest premises to be robbed this weekend when two masked men held up Miss Alex Variety Store, North Sound Road. At around 8:30 on Saturday evening the two young men believed to me teenagers armed with what appeared to be a hand gun and a flare entered the small store and demanded cash, police reported. There were four women and one young child in the store at the time of the hold-up but no shots were fired and no one was injured the men took a small amount of cash from the cash drawer and then left on foot. (Photo Dennie Warren jr)

(CNS): A Grand Court judge has handed down an eight year prison sentence to a 32-year-old man for his part in a conspiracy to supply ½ kilo of cocaine to what turned out to be undercover cops. Osman Bonilla pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply a class A drug, an offence which carries a maximum of ten years in prison. Justice Seymour Panton told the convicted man, who has a previous history of drug dealing, that there was hardly anything to be said in his favour other than his guilty plea, which saved the court time. The judge pointed out that, given the level of evidence, he would have had little chance of a not guilty verdict had the case gone to trial.

(CNS): Six months after a women and her unborn child were killed in a road smash on Sea View Road, the driver of the car has been charged with Causing Death by Dangerous Driving. Police said Thursday that a 24-year-old woman is expected to appear in court next week in connection with the fatal smash which happened last year on Sunday evening around 7pm, 14 August. A 25-year-old pregnant woman, who was a passenger in the vehicle, died following the crash and the driver was also seriously injured and airlifted overseas for medical treatment. Two other women who were also in the car both suffered serious injuries as well and were treated at the Cayman Islands hospital. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)