Jamaican man on bigamy charge in St Vincent granted bail

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC –A Magistrate Court has adjourned to September 3 the trial of a 44-year-old Jamaican man on a charge of bigamy.

On May 21, police arrested Claude Murray, a resident of Peruvian Vale, a community in eastern St Vincent.

He was granted EC$5,000 bail on a charge that he married two women.

Prosecutors are alleging that Murray is legally married in Jamaica but went through “a form of marriage” to a 54-year-old woman in St Vincent and the Grenadines on December 30, 2017.

But when the matter came up for trial at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on Monday, the prosecution applied for an adjournment, saying they were not ready to proceed.

The court heard that the pastor who officiated in the ceremony in which Murray is alleged to have taken part was now overseas.

Defence attorney Grant Connell had pushed for the matter to go ahead, saying that he would accept the pastor’s statement as evidence.

But the prosecution said that even though there is a written statement, that is not before the court and she needs the cleric to give evidence.

Apart from that, the prosecutor said there is another police officer who was not present and is needed to give evidence in the matter.

The prosecution said that the case was a fairly recent one and that the pastor would be back in St Vincent by the end of August.

Grant said he was not objecting to the adjournment.

He, however, said that his client is a foreigner and because of the “little misunderstanding” Murray is “out of the way” and does not have much support.

The lawyer further said that his client is receiving threats from family members of the woman he is alleged to have married in St Vincent.

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