Tivoli Enquiry: Security forces did not plant weapons in Tivoli - Ellington

The cache of illegal firearms seized following the 2010 police-military operations in Tivoli Gardens were not placed there by members of the security forces, retired Police Commissioner Owen Ellington has testified.

He was responding, during testimony before the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry, to a suggestion made in the interim report of the Public Defender's Office that most of the weapons found in Tivoli Gardens came from the stockpile of the Jamaica Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

"We deny this and I'm surprised that the Public Defender would make this assertion without evidence," Ellington said.

He also denied suggestions made in the Office of the Public Defenders interim report that members of the JCF abused residents of the west Kingston community during the operations.