Judge disqualifies bombshell claim of eight-year gang mole
Published:Tuesday | March 1, 2022 | 12:09 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes was stunned on Monday by a claim from a police witness that one of the alleged Clansman-One Don gangsters had been supplying him with intelligence since 2014 but that he had never shared that “gold mine of information” with the lead investigator.
In fact, a prosecutor told the chief justice that it was during an interview Monday morning with the police corporal that he was told that defendant Owen ‘Mickey’ Ormsby was a “police informant”.
“He would pass on information about the members, incidents, and background information on the gang,” the prosecutor relayed, while conceding that the officer had omitted that detail from his witness statement.
The prosecutor said he was also told by the police witness that the investigator never asked him about the gang.
But Justice Sykes, who described the information as “quite surprising”, ruled that he could not allow the evidence as there was no reasonable justification why the officer had not brought the intelligence to the investigator’s attention or noted it in his statement.
“I am hard-pressed to justify the reception of this evidence. Unfortunately, we can’t have this evidence at all,” said Sykes.
However, before the judge made his decision, the witness who took the stand for a short while was asked to explain the foul-up.
The police corporal, who was a member of a special operations squad, explained that he had told his team leader about Ormsby and what he had shared.
He also told the court that even though he was the one who arrested Ormbsy, he was not aware that he was the person that he was going to apprehend until he saw him.
Case was moving so fast
But the police witness further admitted that after the arrest, he did not think to notify the investigator and only gave him an apprehension statement.
“So all this time it didn’t occur to you to tell Mr … that this young man has been a gold mine of information?” the judge asked.
“The case was moving so fast,” the witness replied.
“Yes, but notwithstanding the speed, it did occur to you to say Mr ... , I know this man since 2014, and if you want information … , did you even tell Mr ... that this is what I have learnt?” Sykes pressed.
The witness, in reply, said although he told his team leader he did not check to ensure that the information was passed on to the investigator.
Moreover, he said he was kept in the dark about what was happening in the investigation and had got information via rumours.
The judge then asked when it had dawned upon him that the man was charged. He replied, late 2020.
“Even at that time you didn’t go to Mr … and tell him that you have additional information,” the judge asked to which the witness said, “No.”
The judge, after grilling the police corporal, remarked that as a reasonable man, he found it difficult to understand how the police did not realise the value of the information that he claimed he had.
Justice Sykes’ decision was, however, preceded by objections from Ormsby’s lawyer Kimani Brydson, who argued that there was no information to support the officer’s claim about his client being an informant.
Meanwhile, later in the proceedings, the court was shown photographs of One Don Gang graffiti written on walls in Jones Avenue, Spanish Town, said to be the headquarters of the criminal organisation.
The words ‘One Blackman’ and ‘One Don Gang’ were observed in the photos.
The abbreviation PNP (People’s National Party) was also observed in one of the photos scribbled multiple times alongside One Don Gang. The community is politically aligned to the PNP.
The photos were all admitted into evidence.
The reputed leader of the gang, Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan, and 32 other alleged gang members are being tried on an indictment with 25 counts under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organizations) Act and the Firearms Act.
The One Don Gang is a breakaway faction of the Clansman Gang.
The trial continues today.