Robbery suspect jumps bail

| 08/08/2013

(CNS): A West Bay man who is charged with the robbery of a local bakery has skipped bail and is believed to be overseas. Dan Kelly (21), who was to face trial with co-defendant Derek Simpson, failed to show up to court on Monday for the hearing scheduled to go ahead almost three years after the crime was committed. The two men are accused of holding up the Caribbean Bakery in Mount Pleasant West Bay with a flare gun in September 2010 and making off with $400. Simpson, who was in court Monday, pleaded guilty to the offence, but with no sign of the second defendant, the case was adjourned.

Simpson is now set to be sentenced in September, while the crown revealed that an international arrest warrant has been issued for Kelly via Interpol. Although his exact location is unknown, the prosecutors believe that Kelly is abroad because his mother has admitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions that he calls from time to time from a blocked number.

Both men had been on bail but because of Grand Court’s mounting case load their trial had been adjourned on a number of occasions to make way for cases where defendants were on remand.

The two men were charged some seven months after their arrest, when they were both still teenagers. They were charged with robbery and with possession of an imitation firearm, as they were believed to be carrying a flare gun, with intent to commit robbery at the Caribbean Bakery on Mount Pleasant Road on 29 September. The robbery took place on a very rainy day just before noon, when the suspects escaped with $400 dollars from the cash register after threatening a female member of staff.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    What happened to Immigration records? Did he leave on a fake passport or on a canoe maybe? Have we no control over who enters or leaves our shores. 

  2. Chris says:

    Our young people are so often tagged with police tracking devices for minor offences. 

    Cant persons out on bail for serious charges be tagged as well?

  3. Anonymous says:

    3 years really!!!  were they waiting for him to flee? what happened to bail conditions ? showing up to check in at police station at least 4 days a week curfew and all that good stuff , and these are the brains that get  to be called Q C.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Almost three years before it came to trial for a serious offence like this.

    Now that is a joke.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Hopefully the government will remember this when looking at where to put their building budget. The cruisies said 'you need docks because we've pulled our small boats to Europe, leaving just one, maybe two, ginormous boats here'. Now they say 'we're bringing our Europe boats back to the sunny Caribbean'. And each year the CG says 'we need more courts' and the backlog gets longer. You almost can't blame the guy for snapping/running after (almost) three years of tension. XXXX

  6. Weapons Grade Bollocks says:

    And we should be surprised why?

    Congrats to all govt agencies that played a role in yet another colossal failure to keep an eye on the ball.

    • SSM345 says:

      "Although his exact location is unknown, the prosecutors believe that Kelly is abroad because his mother has admitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions that he calls from time to time from a blocked number." You cannot make this stuff up.