Bail baffle!

At least two hundred and seventy-two of the persons charged for serious crimes in the last decade have committed the same offence while out on bail.

To make matters worse, sexual intercourse with a minor, rape, and grievous sexual assault top the list of most common cases for which bail has been granted by the Home Circuit Court from 2018 to 2020; while gun crimes and assault at common law accounted for the most cases for which bail has been granted in the High Court for the same period.

According to data provided by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in charge of operations and Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (CTOC) boss, Fitz Bailey, some 272 persons have reoffended while out on bail within the last decade. 95 were on bail for illegal firearm charges alone and were again held with illegal guns during the period.

Sixty-four persons who were held on illegal firearms and murder charges were again brought before the courts for gun murders; while 44 persons already before the courts for gun robberies, were again arrested and charged for the said crime while on bail.

The others represented a combination of other major crimes, including rape, noted DCP Bailey, outlining the underbelly of Jamaica’s crime problem and one of the greatest challenges for law enforcement to get on top of it. “These persons were charged repeatedly for offences over several years. So it is not just one year,” Bailey shared with The Sunday Gleaner, adding that an updated analysis may reveal more cases.

“I can talk about a lot of guys. There are so many of them ... and the problem is that I’m not certain our laws are keeping pace with modern society, modern thinking, and what is happening on the ground,” he continued, supporting a seven-police-division state of emergency announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness last Sunday.

Fitzroy ‘OJ’ Coore, the Clarendon serial killer, whose murderous reign snuffed out the life of a two-year-old before he was killed by the cops in 2019, was easy recollection for the senior cop.

So, too, was Paul ‘Machine Man’ Sterling, the reputed Maxfield Avenue don who was killed in a shoot-out with the cops minutes after reporting to the police on condition of bail in 2008.

Still others on the list have been killed by warring nemeses bent on blood. But there remains a worrying majority, still alive and loose, who continue to make a mockery of the law, pressed the senior cop. Some killings, investigations reveal, occur minutes after the accused reported to stations on conditions of bail, he continued.

URGENT NEED OF AN OVERHAUL

Section four of the Bail Act, which identifies “repeat offenders, that is to say, a person who has been convicted on three previous occasions for offences which are punishable with imprisonment...” and judges’ discretion to grant bail, is in urgent need of an overhaul, the DCP said.

“This means a person has to be convicted on at least three occasions before he or she is considered a repeat offender,” charged Bailey, brows creased in frustration. “I’m not the lawmaker but that to me is flawed. When you consider a person who rapes somebody ... what about the victims?”

“You really wonder if we are serious about crime prevention in this country. A lot of the persons charged with firearm offences, cases of murder, rape ... the police have opposed bail and they still get bail the same way. Because bail is a right,” he fumed, noting that at times sleuths are forced to prematurely charge accused persons without evidence in a bid to hold them.

Such moves ultimately jeopardise many investigations, Bailey explained, and put investigators under pressure, and “sometimes the courts become a little impatient because the case is before the court and it is not yet completed. But you really don’t have much information,” he said, citing investigations into financial crimes as examples.

BREACHES OF DRMA

Data obtained from the Court Management Services revealed that some 862 persons have been granted bail in the parish court for rape since 2018, and that up to the first half of this year, assault, unlawful wounding, possession of an offensive weapon, and malicious destruction of property headed the bail approval list.

With the onset of COVID-19, however, breaches of the curfew order under the Disaster Risk Management Act (3,318), and breaches of the Disaster Risk Management Act (3,109) topped the offences for which bail was granted.

About seven per cent of the persons granted bail over the period committed other offences.

Among them is wanted fugitive Davian Bryan, still at large after reportedly abducting two little girls and sending St Thomas and the rest of Jamaica into searching and praying frenzy in October.

Before he was accused of those incidents, Bryan was before the court on allegations that in July 2020 he attacked a woman entering her home in Norwich district, Portland, pressed a gun against her head and ordered her inside.

Bryan was allegedly known to the victim, who pleaded with him not to rape her.

Official police records obtained by The Sunday Gleaner read: “He then demanded that she take off her clothes and went into her bedroom. While there, he told her to lie on the bed and she told him that he must use a condom. She gave him a condom and he proceeded to have sex with her against her will.”

He raped her several other times after the woman declined to have oral sex with him, and when he was finished, he threatened: “...If you talk and dem ketch me, mi a guh meck me people dem deal wid yuh and yuh family,” the police report stated.

Four used condoms and beddings were taken from the victim’s home by police responding to the incident the next day.

BALANCE BETWEEN RIGHTS

Steering clear of casting criticisms on Jamaican judges and their execution of duties, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn explained that “it is a balance between the rights of the accused to their liberty and the rights of the witness to be protected”.

“It is a fine balance that a judge often has to walk,” she emphasised, citing several bail considerations judges may make, albeit specific to each case. Among them is whether the accused is a flight risk or whether, like in Bryan’s case, he must adhere to strict conditions such as relocating from the area of the crime and curfew orders.

“The (defence) attorney may also say he (accused) is the sole breadwinner in the family. So if he is in custody and cannot work, what is going to happen to everybody?” Llewellyn told The Sunday Gleaner. “Granted, we can still appeal it, but if it is on the border, it doesn’t make any sense.”

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com