Seymour verdict delayed by legal wrangling

(CNS): Major legal disputes between the crown and the defence held up the trial of local politican Dwayne Seymour today. An application made by crown counsel John Masters with respect to the closing remarks made by defence lawyer Steve McField led to lengthy legal wrangling in the absence of the jury. The judge had been expected to sum up the three day case Thursday morning and direct the five men and two women on issues regarding the law. However, following the crown’s application the judge will now be giving a more detailed direction in order to address some of the issues that arose out of McField’s closing speech before sending the seven jurors to deliberate. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)

The judge will now address the jury on Friday morning before they will be sent to deliberate on their verdict. The UDP government backbencher is charged with perverting the course of justice when he allegedly implied to a security guard not to tell the authorities that he had been involved in a fight with a man at the Grand Cayman Beach Suites.

The incident took place on 1 May when Seymour went to the hotel looking for his wife, Melanie Seymour. The Bodden Town MLA believed she was there with a man called Garrone Yap, who he believed was having an affair with her.

During the trial it emerged that Seymour had found out Yap was on island as a result of information he received from someone at the airport but denied that it was from immigration. It also emerged that the UDP representative gave a false account to the police when he had reported the fight with Yap and asked police to investigate the matter.

The case hangs on one line, however, and that is what Seymour did or did not say to a security officer. According to the guard, who was on duty that night, Seymour had introduced himself as the MLA for Bodden Town when he parked in the fire lane at the hotel and said he was waiting for his wife. He had asked the security guard if he knew which room she was in and if he would give him the key but the officer had pointed out that he did not know and even if he did could not give him a key.

Around half an hour later the guard witnessed Seymour and a friend in the fight with Yap and went to assist Yap, who he said was in the bushes with Seymour on top of him. The guard said that when the altercation was over and the men separated, as Seymour went to leave the scene he had turned to him and said, “Security, ya not see nothing.”

Sometime later Seymour went to the police and told them that Yap had attacked him first and that his friend Minzett had been the one fighting in the bushes with him.

Seymour denies the charges as he says he did not say anything at all to the officer as he left the scene.