{"id":112356,"date":"2020-06-22T06:37:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T10:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=112356"},"modified":"2020-06-22T06:37:51","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T10:37:51","slug":"commentary-trials-and-tribulations-hell-and-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-trials-and-tribulations-hell-and-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY: Trials And Tribulations \u2013 Hell And Horror"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by RAWLSTON POMPEY<\/p>

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In today\u2019s world, if life were lived in utopia, then few people may have experienced \u2018…Trials and Tribulations; …Hell and Horror.\u2019<\/strong> Except the grave, there is no such place on earth where there is no turmoil, sorrow, frustration and misery. Likened to places of social and racial unrest, there are people fighting for \u2018Criminal Justice\u2019<\/strong> in a system that appears more adversarial to the human psyche, whether they are \u2018innocent; …not so innocent; or …guilty; or not guilty.\u2019 When the innocent is unsuspectingly lured through the deceptive exploits of the criminally-inclined, that has often been a time the victim usually asked, \u2018Why Me Lord?\u2019 <\/strong>This has been the experience of a \u2018forty-five year-old struggling single mother of three.\u2019<\/strong> Jointly charged and indicted with a \u2018female co-worker,\u2019 as fate sometimes has it, her co-accused in an alleged fraudulent scam, \u2018fortuitously and unconditionally\u2019<\/strong> had her indictments \u2018Nolle Prosequi.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

AN UNDERSTANDING<\/strong><\/p>

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The exercise of such power takes into consideration the \u2018public interest.\u2019<\/strong> This so, whether or not the criminal proceedings were instituted, undertaken by himself or by any other person or authority\u2019 [CO: 1981: Section 88 (1) (c)]. Constitutionally insulated, the \u2018DPP\u2019<\/strong> shall not subject himself to the \u2018…directions or control of any other person or authority.\u2019 For \u2018An Understanding\u2019<\/strong> of the legal term \u2018Nolle Prosequi,\u2019<\/strong> it simply means an authority when the \u2018DPP\u2019 represents himself before a Court in any criminal proceedings. Conversely, it means his written authority or \u2018Fiat\u2019<\/strong> directing a \u2018Crown Prosecuting Attorneys\u2019 to act in a prosecutorial capacity on his behalf. Such Crown attorneys are \u2018prosecutorially duty-bound\u2019 to comply with his professional directions. His character remains impeccably grounded.<\/p>

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PERSPECTIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The accused had been charge with \u2018Conspiring with persons unknown\u2019 in pulling off what may have been seen as a \u2018spectacular technologically-aided criminal act.\u2019<\/strong> However, without the necessary technologies and skills, this may have been farfetched. In a bizarre turn of events, she; (a)<\/strong> \u2018…Forego the constitutional presumption of innocence; (b)<\/strong> …Ill-advisedly waived her right to a full and fair hearing; and (c)<\/strong> …Made restoration of proceeds said to have been derived from her technological exploits.\u2019 Desperately seeking to go to trial, she was confronted with endless \u2018Trials and Tribulations,\u2019 Hell, Horror and Miseries.\u2019 <\/strong>This commentary not only looks at the turn of events, but also attempts to sensitize and\/or bring awareness of potential dangers posed in accepting opportunities for \u2018Cash Making\u2019 <\/strong>on social media.<\/p>

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HELL AND HORROR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since her hasty; (i)<\/strong> \u2018…Arrest; (ii)<\/strong> …Committal; (iii)<\/strong> …Indictment; and (iv)<\/strong> …Arraignment,\u2019 the accused had never faced an empanelled Jury. She was not only \u2018struggling to sustain life on limited financial resources,\u2019 but had also appealed to \u2018Crown Prosecutors\u2019 to cause her trial to be expedited. Inexplicably, prosecutors appeared not to have remembered that \u2018He, who accuses, must prove.\u2019 <\/strong>Instead the case for the prosecution had been traversed from \u2018Assizes to Assizes,\u2019<\/strong> with adjournment after adjournment.\u2019 The accused endured as many \u2018Trials and Tribulations,\u2019 as she had seen \u2018Hell<\/strong> and \u2018Horror.\u2019<\/strong> The enduring wait for trial may have been nothing short of being psychologically painful, cruel and inhuman treatment.\u2019<\/p>

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QUICK CASH – BACKLASH<\/strong><\/p>

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When \u2018Face Book\u2019 <\/strong>messages offered opportunities to potential agents in facilitating the transfer of sums of money to \u2018Africa Continent,\u2019<\/strong> it appeared that those hoping to earn \u2018Quick Cash\u2019<\/strong> got \u2018Backlash.<\/strong>\u2019 Some participants may have been too na\u00efve in assuming that such activity had legitimacy. When those entrapped in unsuspected acts of criminality, the time came when they may have asked; \u2018Why me Lord?\u2019 <\/strong>In the instant case, the recruitment process reportedly began when the unsuspecting accused was reportedly introduced to the unknown scammers on social media. Then acting upon \u2018Watsapp Directions,\u2019<\/strong> third parties on \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis,\u2019<\/strong> had been influenced to open \u2018Savings Accounts\u2019<\/strong> at a commercial bank in the Federation.<\/p>\n

10% COMMISSION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their accounts were credited with funds said to have been siphoned-off from a banking institution on \u2018St. Vincent and the Grenadines.\u2019 The funds were then dispatched through money transfer agencies to the named accused person in \u2018Antigua and Barbuda.\u2019<\/strong> Likened to the other dispatchers in the \u2018Federation of St. Kitts\/Nevis,\u2019<\/strong> visiting her \u2018Face Book Page,\u2019 the accused reportedly clicked on an inbox message. It offered an online job opportunity to; (i) \u2018… Receiving money; (ii) …Making a commission; and (iii) …Transferring Money to a third party.\u2019 An incentivized \u201810% Commission\u2019<\/strong> was reportedly received by dispatchers, averaging a meager \u2018EC$200.00.\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

TECHNOLOGICAL FEAT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both females were accused of hacking into the \u2018Savings Account\u2019 of then a \u2018Mona Campus\u2019<\/strong> student. The student, a Vincentian national had been a customer with a commercial bank on \u2018Halifax Street, Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019<\/strong> [2015]. Even possessing limited computer skills, had that been factually correct and evidentially proven, it would have been an exceptional \u201821st century \u2018Technological Feat\u2019<\/strong> by two females, complicit in committing a cyber crime, while resident in \u2018Antigua and Barbuda.\u2019<\/strong> It begs the question, \u2018…What scammer would have hacked into a bank account to receive the negligible sum of \u2018EC$200.00?\u2019 <\/strong>Even a dim-witted \u2018monkey\u2019<\/strong> representing a \u2018donkey<\/strong>\u2019 in a \u2018Kangaroo Court,\u2019<\/strong> would have found this kind of logic preposterous.<\/p>\n

INEXCUSABLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has always been viewed as \u2018Inexcusable\u2019<\/strong> for \u2018Crown Prosecutors\u2019 not to be ready to proceed with trials. This is particularly so, after \u2018…accused persons have been speedily committed; and indictments have been hastily filed and service have been completed. None shall be deceived into believing that the attendance of; (i)<\/strong> …an adjudicator; (ii)<\/strong> …Crown Prosecutor; (iii)<\/strong> …an accused person; and (iv)<\/strong> …an attorney,\u2019 necessarily means the commencement of trial. Such trial dictates the \u2018empanelling of a 12-member Jury.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

PUNISHING WAIT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Resident in \u2018Antigua and Barbuda,\u2019 <\/strong>an accused female remains adamant that she was not guilty of \u2018fraud-associated charges.\u2019<\/strong> She vehemently denied that she was complicit in a scam with \u2018persons known or unknown\u2019 to defraud a commercial Bank on mainland \u2018St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019 [2015]. <\/strong>In spite of the constitutional \u2018presumption of innocence,\u2019 [Section 15 (2) (a)], <\/strong>she endured a \u2018Punishing Wait\u2019<\/strong> of five years for a trial that had never started. Placed on \u2018Suspension From Office,\u2019<\/strong> and forced to subsist on a \u20181\/3 Salary reduction,\u2019<\/strong> pending the outcome of a criminal trial, when no assistance came from State prosecuting agencies, not only her anxieties and frustration increased, but also the miseries associated with reduced disposable income.<\/p>\n

TRIAL FIXTURES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barring administrative, human resource or equipment difficulties, even as \u2018Trial Fixtures\u2019<\/strong> had been made, there had been no actuality of trial. In the instant case, that which may have been obvious to all a sundry, were; (i) <\/strong>…No Jury was ever empanelled; (ii)<\/strong> …No witnesses came from (a)<\/strong> …St. Vincent and the Grenadines; (b)<\/strong> …St. Kitts\/Nevis; (c)<\/strong> …Jamaica; and (d)<\/strong> …Antigua and Barbuda.\u2019 None were ever summoned to appear before a \u2018Judge and Jury.\u2019 What was known is that in \u20182015 to early March 2020,\u2019<\/strong> there was no \u2018Coronavirus,\u2019<\/strong> and no \u2018lockdown\u2019<\/strong> of any darn systems, judicial or otherwise.<\/p>\n

PREGNANT WITH DECEPTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the indictments against her were conditionally \u2018Nolle Prosequi,\u2019<\/strong> observers saw it as an abortion, with striking resemblance of \u2018perversion.\u2019 Some have further argued that the accused may have been deceptively led into believing that she was given an easy way out of a criminal trial that showed a possibility for an acquittal. It shall have been to the knowledge of \u2018Crown Prosecutors\u2019<\/strong> that there was no \u2018reasonable prospect of conviction.\u2019 <\/strong>In making the restorative payment,\u2019 it begs the; \u2018Why was the accused influenced, coerced, agreed or allowed to make restitution as to be seen as an opportunity to escape \u2018Jury Trial?\u2019 Such appeared \u2018Pregnant with Deception.\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

INDUBITABLE FACTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

That which shall be clearly understood is that \u2018His Lordship\u2019 was in no way complicit in that which observers viewed as \u2018prosecutorial inconsistency,<\/strong>\u2019 in aborting trial in lieu of the restitution of money to a victim. On her final appearance, the accused was not called upon to enter a plea. These assertions could neither be questioned, nor challenged. Such are made on the basis of \u2018Indubitable Facts;<\/strong>\u2019 (i)<\/strong> …There was not an empanelled Jury: (ii)<\/strong> …Non-attendance of witnesses for the prosecution or defence; and (iii)<\/strong> …Non-attendance of the arresting officer to give evidence of his investigative role.\u2019 That was the time when \u2018Justice Says No.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

WHEN JUSTICE SAYS NO<\/strong><\/p>\n

As fate sometimes has it, a reluctant and distraught accused, was left with a heavy financial debt\u2019 [<\/strong>May 2020]. When the accused reportedly agreed to restore \u2018EC$10, 000\u2019<\/strong> [May 2020], <\/strong>that may have been coincidental with the time \u2018Balaam\u2019s donkey complained of its treatment\u2019 [Numbers 22: 28]. She had been crying and pleading for an expedited trial by a Jury of her peers. Such were made ever since some \u2018poultry farmers\u2019 have been trying to \u2018produce roosters with teeth\u2019<\/strong> [2015].<\/strong> To date, there has been no \u2018teeth-bearing roosters,\u2019<\/strong> and no trial was ever conducted. Likened to the incomplete \u2018…Kenneth Roland Wyre and Rowan \u2018Archie\u2019 Bailey trial,\u2019 after a delay of five years, justice was effectively denied. <\/strong>Visitation by the Judiciary has still not resolve the situation.<\/p>\n

TEN YEARS \u2013 TRIAL DELAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

In sworn affidavit by \u2018Crown Counsel Shannon Jones-Gittens,\u2019 she intimated that; \u2018…Between 2012 and 2015, the High Court was plagued with disruptions.\u2019 These were identified as; (i) <\/strong>…Bomb threats; and (ii<\/strong>) …Sewage problems and water issues\u2019 [Paragraph 19]. As compelling as these may have been, \u2018Her Ladyship, Justice Agnes Actie\u2019<\/strong> appeared not to have been overly amused. She wrote; \u2018…The State is obliged to organize its legal system to ensure compliance with the guaranteed right under the Constitution for a fair and speedy trial.\u2019 Consequently, she ordered compensation in the respective sums of \u2018EC$7, 500 and EC$ 5, 000\u2019<\/strong> [Paragraph 54] to the accused\/litigants.<\/p>\n

NOT GUILTY PLEA<\/strong><\/p>\n

For five years, having waited agonizingly for trial, in the last arraignment at the \u2018Criminal Assizes of 2020,\u2019 s<\/strong>he remained unwavering. The accused showed consistency with her \u2018Plea of Not Guilty.\u2019 Such consistency undoubtedly, may have provoked a rude awakening in \u2018Crown Prosecutor Shannon Jones-Gittens.\u2019 <\/strong>She insisted that she had not by herself, or with persons known or unknown, hacked into a bank account, be it in this jurisdiction or outside jurisdiction. Crown Prosecutors may then have become aware that they were facing issues of; (a)<\/strong> \u2018…Jurisdiction; (b)<\/strong> …Inadequacy of evidence; and (c)<\/strong> …an inability to produce listed witnesses from; (i)<\/strong> …St. Vincent and the Grenadines; (ii)<\/strong> …St. Kitts and Nevis; and (ii)<\/strong> …Jamaica.\u2019<\/p>\n

ORIGINAL\/NEW INDICTMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through the years, it had been adjournment after adjournment. Instructively, in every instance when a \u2018Court Fixture\u2019<\/strong> came up, it ended in futility. Those in attendance were always; (i)<\/strong> \u2018…The adjudicator; (ii)<\/strong> …Crown Prosecutor; (iii)<\/strong> …the accused; and (iv)<\/strong> …her attorney.\u2019 On arraignment, the accused pleaded not guilty <\/strong>to the filed \u2018Original and New Indictments.\u2019<\/strong> Not only had her anxieties grew, but also her cries grew louder and louder. When trial was further delayed, \u2018Justice\u2019 was effectively denied. The delays seemed to have replicated that of the \u2018…Kenneth Roland Wyre and Rowan \u2018Archie\u2019 Bailey Case\u2019<\/strong> [ANU: HCV 2019\/306]. This case made grim reminder of the horrors of a criminal trial and the apparent languid state of the \u2018Criminal Justice System.\u2019<\/p>\n

PROSECUTORIAL MORASS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even with the availability, yet non-attendance of criminal investigator, then \u2018Inspector Grantley Simons,\u2019 \u2018Crown Prosecutor Shannon Jones-Gittens\u2019 may still not have been well evidentially positioned<\/strong> to establish a \u2018prima facie case\u2019<\/strong> against the accused. So \u2018wishy-washy\u2019<\/strong> had been the investigation, that no personal interviews were conducted with listed or other potential witnesses outside \u2018Antigua and Barbuda.\u2019<\/strong> Privileged information suggested that the investigator had not travelled to make contact with any of the listed witnesses. Crown Prosecutors had to figure a way out of the \u2018Prosecutorial Morass.\u2019<\/strong> It may have been viewed as \u2018sheer lunacy\u2019 to conduct investigation into a crime allegedly committed at a bank in \u2018St. Vincent and the Grenadines.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

FREQUENT WITHDRAWALS<\/strong><\/p>\n

A particular feature of the scam operations had been the frequency of withdrawals. From a single Account- \u2018eleven (11)\u2019 <\/strong>transactions were reportedly executed over a \u2018seventy-two hour period.\u2019 <\/strong>Such frequency made the scam operations capable of being described as intriguing, yet vexatious. When it was all over, a Commercial bank on \u2018St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019<\/strong> had been deprived of \u2018XCD$28, 000.\u2019<\/strong> Bank officials in \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis\u2019, who had discovered the questionable activities, were left startled; …Bank officials in \u2018St. Vincent and the Grenadines,\u2019 befuddled. Yet they<\/strong> reportedly made no report to law enforcement authority in that jurisdiction. Instructively, some \u2018EC$ 18, 000\u2019<\/strong> still begs for accountability and\/or restitution. Neither had there been any prosecutorial action taken against other dispatchers in St. Kitts\/Nevis.<\/p>\n

MONEY TRANSFER SCAM<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the money transfer job became the subject of bank scrutiny in the \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis Federation\u2019<\/strong> it saw the immediate closures of accounts. Though the females had no involvement with any banking entity, it was revealed that they had participated in a \u2018Money Transfer Scam.\u2019<\/strong> Their involvement as recipients of funds to be dispatch to \u2018Africa,\u2019<\/strong> resulted in their arrest. This came about, following the detection of \u2018five suspicious transactions,\u2019 by staff of a commercial bank on \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis.\u2019<\/strong> It was obvious that \u2018His Lordship, Justice Iain Morley\u2019<\/strong> was not positioned to perform his judicial role of trial Judge.<\/p>\n

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The money suspectedly siphoned off from the \u2018Kingstown Halifax Street\u2019 commercial bank\u2019 [SVG] <\/strong>was reportedly electronically dispatched to a corresponding bank on the Federation of \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis.\u2019 Then through two regional \u2018Money Transfer Agencies\u2019<\/strong> participants in that jurisdiction dispatched it to the accused through corresponding agencies. Incidentally, after two dispatches, the suspicious transactions were reportedly detected and arrested by bank officials in that jurisdiction. There was \u2018Documentary evidence\u2019<\/strong> confirming that the proceeds dispatched from \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis were transferred to a named person on continental Africa by the accused.<\/p>\n

FIGMENT OF IMAGINATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

The accused and another female were accused of hacking into the \u2018Savings Account\u2019 of then \u2018Mona Campus\u2019<\/strong> student [Jamaica]. The student, a Vincentian national had been a customer with a commercial bank on \u2018Halifax Street, Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019<\/strong> [2015]. Even possessing limited computer skills, had that been factually correct and evidentially proven, it would have been an exceptional \u201821st century technological feat\u2019 by two females, complicit in committing a \u2018Cyber Crime,\u2019 <\/strong>while resident in \u2018Antigua and Barbuda.\u2019 Removed from investigative competence, this appeared more a \u2018Figment of Imagination\u2019<\/strong> than it was in reality. Seemingly playing \u2018hide and seek,\u2019<\/strong> Crown Prosecutors<\/strong> appeared to have been sunken into obscurity.<\/p>\n

NEW INDICTMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was obvious that \u2018Crown Prosecutors\u2019 <\/strong>may have been caught off-guard to realize that the affected financial institution was in actuality in another jurisdiction \u2013 \u2018St. Vincent and the Grenadines.\u2019 Encountering \u2018an evidential cul-de-sac,\u2019<\/strong> Crown Prosecutors revisited the \u2018Larceny Act\u2019 [ANU: Chapter 241]. This may have been evident when \u2018Crown Prosecutor Shannon Jones-Gittens\u2019 came back to the \u2018Criminal Assizes\u2019 swinging. There were two \u2018New Indictments.\u2019 <\/strong>This was \u2018prosecutorial gymnastics\u2019 <\/strong>at best. Calmly, she apprised the ever accommodating adjudicator, His Lordship, Justice Iain Morley, that two \u2018New Indictments\u2019 <\/strong>had been filed against the accused; (i)<\/strong> \u2018…Receiving Stolen Property; and (ii) <\/strong>…Conspiracy\u2019 [March 2020]. These were consistent with existing law.<\/p>\n

EVIDENTIAL ELEMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

That for which the accused was further indicted, clearly states; \u2018…Every person who, \u2018without lawful excuse,\u2019<\/strong> receives or has in his possession any property \u2018Stolen\u2019 <\/strong>or obtained out of \u2018Antigua and Barbuda,\u2019<\/strong> \u2018Knowing\u2019<\/strong> it to have been stolen or obtained in any way whatsoever under such circumstances as if the act was committed in Antigua and Barbuda, the person committing it would have been guilty of a felony or misdemeanour.\u2019 The penalty on conviction is a term of \u2018imprisonment not exceeding 7 years\u2019<\/strong> [Section 37 (3): Chapter 241].<\/p>\n

PROSECUTORIAL STRENGTH<\/strong><\/p>\n

The accused was not only adamant of her innocence, but also cognizance of the fact that \u2018Crown Prosecutors\u2019 had no \u2018Prosecutorial Strength\u2019<\/strong> pursuing a criminal trial without \u2018…reasonable prospect of conviction.\u2019 <\/strong>Crown Prosecutors themselves may have come to the realization of three possibilities; (i)<\/strong> …The accused insistence to stand before the Jury; (ii)<\/strong> …Provable evidence that she possessed the technological skills to hack into a Savings Account in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; or that (iii)<\/strong> …She had the sophisticated capacity to siphon-off and wire money to accounts at a corresponding bank on \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis.\u2019<\/strong> More importantly, they had no supporting evidence that the accused was the mastermind behind the fraudulent activities detected by bank officials in that jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

SHODDY INVESTIGATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may also have been for reasons of \u2018Shoddy Criminal Investigations\u2019<\/strong> that some prosecutions were delayed. From that which was gleaned through privilege information, the arrest not only appeared to have defied logic, but also professionally misguided. Clearly, overzealous criminal investigators, without an iota of evidence necessary to\u00a0 constitute and prove the case, slapped the accused with; (i) …Larceny of Money; (ii) …Receiving Stolen Property; and (iii) …Conspiring with a known female\u2019 to \u2018defraud a commercial Bank in St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019 [2015]. <\/strong>It may have been prosecutorial oversight, that the original \u2018Complaints without Oath\u2019 <\/strong>filed, showed that the offences were committed in \u2018…Magisterial District A, St. John\u2019s, Antigua and Barbuda.\u2019<\/strong> Crown Prosecutors, therefore, may have encountered grave difficulties in finding a nexus, linking the accused to the criminal acts, be it within or outside this jurisdiction. Crown Prosecutors know that they were duty-bound to prove \u2018beyond reasonable doubt.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

LEGITIMACY OF FUNDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

There may have been good reasons \u2018Crown Prosecutor Shannon Jones-Gittens\u2019 that the accused was kept away from a \u201812-member Jury.\u2019 One possible reason may have been keeping the legitimate holders of personal bank accounts in \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis\u2019 on the Witness stand. They would have been required to give testimony as to; (a) …Origin; (b) …Source; and (c) …Legitimacy of funds\u2019 <\/strong>credited to their \u2018St. Kitts\/Nevis Accounts.\u2019<\/strong> It would also have been interesting to hear what questions \u2018Defence Attorney\u2019 <\/strong>may have asked respecting; (i)<\/strong> \u2018…Legitimacy or illegitimacy of such funds; (ii) <\/strong>…How withdrawn; and (iii)<\/strong> …What, if anything, what they did with the funds.\u2019<\/p>\n

FUNDAMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Answers given truthfully, would most certainly have favoured the accused. Since she had no dealings with any bank, \u2018Crown Prosecutors\u2019 may have found it difficult to convince a Jury that the accused \u2018KNEW\u2019 <\/strong>that monies were \u2018STOLEN\u2019 <\/strong>from a commercial bank in \u2018St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019 <\/strong>when she received certain sums through \u2018Money Transfer Agencies.\u2019 From prosecutorial experience, in establishing a \u2018prima facie case,\u2019 Crown Prosecutors needed \u2018prima facie evidence.\u2019 Such evidence must satisfy the requirements of the law. Given these, Crown Prosecutors may have struggled with two \u2018Fundamental Considerations;<\/strong> (i)<\/strong> \u2018…Placing the accused before the Jury with insufficiency of evidence; and (ii)<\/strong> …Taking the case beyond the threshold of \u2018…reasonable prospect of conviction.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

PROSECUTORIAL GYMNASTICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

There had been no substantiating evidence that she had committed fraud against any commercial bank operating within the jurisdictions of; (a)<\/strong> \u2018…Antigua and Barbuda; (b)<\/strong> …St. Kitts and Nevis; and (c)<\/strong> …St. Vincent and the Grenadines.\u2019 Had that been the case, the question is, \u2018Why was the accused not put on trial? <\/strong>It may have been clearly given to understand, that even if \u2018Thy Kingdom Come,\u2019<\/strong> the accused was not going to walk away scotch-free. After several exhibitions, a \u2018Prosecutorial Gymnast\u2019 <\/strong>was born. The \u2018Crown Prosecutor Shannon Jones-Gittens\u2019 was \u2018cresting\u2019 atop a \u201810-foot prosecutorial wave.\u2019 She was granted yet another trial adjournment.\u2019 This meant more agonizing delay in bringing the accused to trial.<\/p>\n

NOLLE PROSEQUI<\/strong><\/p>\n

When \u2018Crown Prosecutor Shannon Jones-Gittens\u2019 informed \u2018His Lordship, Justice Iain Morley\u2019 that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was entering a \u2018Nolle Prosequi\u2019<\/strong> to end the new indictments against the accused, the criminal proceedings effectively ended. When the \u2018Nolle Prosequi\u2019 was entered, that may have the time the \u2018toothless rooster crowed.\u2019 For the avoidance of \u2018doubt, misconception or speculations,\u2019 constitutional powers reside only with the \u2018Director of Public Prosecutions.\u2019 As such, the office holder is at liberty to \u2018…discontinue at any stage, before judgment is delivered in such criminal proceedings\u2019 <\/strong>[Section 88 (5)].<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong><\/p>\n

None may deny that the proliferated use of technology has seen criminals with various exploitative skills. There have been; (a) \u2018…schemers; (b) …scammers; (c) …fraudsters; and (d) …hackers or phishers.\u2019 These criminals are adept at performing \u2018unimaginable technological feats.\u2019 They are never far away from their computers or other technological gadgets. They have been constantly \u2018phishing\u2019 and stealing data and\/or internet user\u2019s identities. Such is achievable only when personal information, including \u2018bank credentials\u2019 <\/strong>is revealed, requested or stealthily accessed. Constantly in hacking mode, they have been unrelenting in targeting unsuspecting victims with \u2018Messages\u2019<\/strong> that often prompt detrimental responses. Data \u2018phished\u2019 out has often been exploitatively used for financial gain. It has been public knowledge that as depositors endeavor to grow bank balances, \u2018Cyber Criminals\u2019<\/strong> have been assiduously devising ways in entering bank balances. Given these truths, only increased operational and transactional business vigilance, could help to lessen \u2018Trials and Tribulations and Hell and Horror,\u2019 <\/strong>including the indignities, agony and uncertainties associated with criminal proceedings.\u2019 ***<\/p>\n

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by RAWLSTON POMPEY In today\u2019s world, if life were lived in utopia, then few people may have experienced \u2018…Trials and Tribulations; …Hell and Horror.\u2019 Except the grave, there is no such place on earth where there is no turmoil, sorrow, frustration and misery. Likened to places of social and racial unrest, there are people fighting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"yoast_head":"\nCOMMENTARY: Trials And Tribulations \u2013 Hell And Horror - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-trials-and-tribulations-hell-and-horror\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COMMENTARY: Trials And Tribulations \u2013 Hell And Horror\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by RAWLSTON POMPEY In today\u2019s world, if life were lived in utopia, then few people may have experienced \u2018…Trials and Tribulations; …Hell and Horror.\u2019 Except the grave, there is no such place on earth where there is no turmoil, sorrow, frustration and misery. 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