Archive for September 16th, 2010

Jury says 3 men are guilty

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 71 Comments

(CNS): Full story — Patrick McField, Osbourne Douglas and Brandon Leslie-Ebanks have all been found guilty of the murder of Omar Samuels in McField Lane, George Town on 5 July. The verdict was returned just before 4:00pm this afternoon (Thursday 16 September) to a courtroom filled with friends and family of the defendants. When the unexpected verdict was delivered by the foreman, the families of the three men broke down in shock and grief at the result. The judge took a short adjournment after the jury’s verdict was delivered before pronouncing the mandatory life sentence on all three defendants as the men’s families wept in the public gallery. (Photo courtesy of News27)

The defence teams said they were unable to comment on the verdict but each one confirmed that they would be filing appeals as soon as possible on behalf of their respective clients.

Brandon Leslie-Ebanks’ mother and brother told CNS that they were shocked by the verdict. Brandon’s mother said that, given the gun crime in Cayman at present and the murder which took place during the trial, this may have influenced the result, but she said it was a travesty of justice to convict innocent men as was the situation in this case with her son and his co-defendants.

“Convicting innocent men of a crime won’t solve the problem that we are facing in our community,” she said. “My son is not a murderer, he does not carry a gun, but because of the bad things that are happening in Cayman it is influencing people to think all young men are bad. He is not guilty of this crime and the man who fired that bullet and killed Omar is still free. Justice has not been served,” she added through her tears

Matthew Leslie, Brandon’s brother said, “This is very distressing for us at present, especially for my mom for whom this has been a stressful ordeal, as the evidence simply did not support the result. However I am confident that this will be overturned in the Court of Appeal where the evidence will be properly assessed.”

Leslie said that all of the friends and relatives of the defendants were shocked and surprised because they believed that the widely contradictory evidence of the crown’s eyewitnesses and the inconsistencies with the forensic evidence simply did not point in any way to the guilt of the young men.

Brandon’s brother also noted that the passing of the police bill as well as another murder involving a firearm during the trial may well have served to have a negative effect on the community.

Kim Evans, who was since retired from the RCIPS but was the senior investigating officer on the case at the time, was also in court to hear the verdict. He said that the officers involved had worked very hard on the enquiry and justice had been served.

The Ryan family’s 302-day sailing odyssey

Guest Writer | 16/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNN): Anyone who has ever owned a boat has probably dreamed of cruising around the world on it. Sadly, very few of us actually do. Work, kids, health or other commitments usually gets in the way of our ambitions. Mike and Judy Ryan were no different, with three young daughters and a hectic hotel business to run. But in 2007, they decided they had waited long enough to fulfil their dream. Back then their youngest daughter Fiona was just eight years old, Madeleine was ten and Justine 12.

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Facebook alternative Diaspora rolls out first code

Guest Writer | 16/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(BBC): Developers have been given their first glimpse of a community-funded and open alternative to Facebook. Diaspora describes itself as a "privacy-aware, personally-controlled" social network. It was conceived earlier this year by four US students during a period when Facebook came under fire for its privacy settings. The open-source project has now released its first code to developers and also published screenshots. "This is now a community project and development is open to anyone with the technical expertise who shares the vision of a social network that puts users in control," the team said in a blog.

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Mac berates bureaucrats

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 67 Comments

(CNS): The country’s premier has taken another swipe at the bureaucracy that he says is hampering his efforts to get the country’s economy back on track. He described the bureaucracy as “silent, passive non-compliance” and a “dragging of feet” when people were opposed to government projects. Although he did not call out the civil service directly, he implied that it was within the government mechanism that he was encountering the problems that prevented him from getting what he wanted done. McKeeva Bush raised the issue at a George Town public meeting on Wednesday night as he talked about the current state of the economy and efforts to turn things around. He warned the audience, in which there were a number of public servants, that he was going to stop it. (Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

“In government there is a lot of bureaucracy. Believe you me, I have never seen as much bureaucracy as I am seeing now,” he said, adding that while sometimes it was good to have bureaucracy as it ensured transparency and best interests of government and the people, too often it was used as a barricade. Bush said there was a series of hoops that politicians have to repeatedly jump through to get a single project done.

“Sometimes bureaucracy is used as an excuse for the dragging of feet because someone doesn’t agree with the project or doesn’t want to see the project accomplished,” the premier told the audience gathered at the newly renovated George Town Peace Hall. “It is what I have heard referred to as a silent, passive, non-compliance from the people paid to advance the policy of objectives. It’s a dragging of the feet that prevents us from making positive progress.”

He said that he should not be standing there talking about getting a waste-to-energy project going in the near future; he should have been giving a progress report on a job which had already started months ago. However, bureaucracy had held the project up, he claimed. It was just one example he gave, adding that a number of things were being “deliberately bogged down”.

“I wish I had gotten more done in the past twelve months … but I am not going to stand for it any longer, not when people are out of work and losing their homes,” he warned. “We were given a mandate and that mandate must be carried out.”

He said he was not afraid of losing elections as he had lost them in the past and it had made him stronger. Bush added that he was now going to apply pressure in order to get things done though he gave no indication of where that pressure would be applied.

“We don’t have time to play games simply because someone doesn’t agree with a policy decision, or because someone doesn’t trust someone else, or because someone doesn’t want to see someone else get the work,” the premier complained, adding they were using their positions to stand in the way of projects and slow them down. “The economic situation is deadly serious. The world is not going to wait for us to get our act together or feel sorry for us. What has to be done must get done.”

He said doing everything at a snail’s pace would be to the country’sdetriment if not to its total destruction as money wouldn’t come in and bills and salaries wouldn’t get paid. Too many are going to get hurt, he said.

Asked by a member of the audience what he meant by "the bureaucrats" and for more details and specifics on who was holding things up, Bush said that was perhaps a question he really did not want to answer but he said, “Let’s say we are going to something about it.”

Cayman tax authorityincreases reports to Europe

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): According to the specialist website Tax News, the Cayman Islands increased the number of reports it has made under the European Union Savings Directive during 2009. The total number of reports made by the Cayman Islands’ Tax Information Authority increased from 5,679 in 2008, to 7,397 in 2009. However, while the number or reports was up, the total value of income declared fell significantly from US$25.7 million in 2008 to US$12.25 million in 2009, the tax experts revealed in a specialist report. The biggest number of reports were made regarding accounts based in Cayman went to the French tax authority. Cayman sent 3,602 reports to France last year, an increase from 2,159 in 2008.

The next largest number of reports was from account holders relating to the UK, which was down significantly on 2008. Cayman sent 1,142 reports to the UK tax office compared to 1,643 reports in 2008.The amount also fell substantially from US$13m in 2008, to US$3.3m.

Although the number of reports sent to France was more than the UK, the amount of savings income was still greater based on UK related accounts than those from French offshore account holders, the Tax News report revealed. Dutch residents were recorded as having the highest interest income in 2009, with US$4.48m declared.

The Cayman Islands is party to the European Union Savings Directive, so residents in a European Union country who have accounts in Cayman and receive interest on that money are liable, under the Cayman’s regime, to have information relating to the interest they have earned sent confidentially to their home country’s tax authority.

Police investigate break-in at George Town business

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 2 Comments

(CNS): At around 3:45 this morning Thursday 16 September police from the George Town Police Station responded to an alarm that had been activated at a business premises on Walkers Road, located near to the four way junction. When the officers arrived to at the location they found what they described as an “insecure door” where it looked like the suspects had gained entry into the building. Although they searched the office the police said no on was found and “it was determined that the suspects had fled prior police arrival,” a police spokesperson said this morning. The police did not say what, if anything, had been taken by the burglars.

Detective Constable Kingsly Mitchell of George Town CID is appealing for anyone who was in the area of around the relevant time and witnessed the burglary or saw the suspects fleeing the scene to come forward.

Anyone with information should call George Town Police Station on 949-4222 or Crime Stoppers 800-8477 (TIPS)