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Minister tours new facilities at WB Sports Centre
(CNS): New changing rooms at the Ed Bush Sports Centre in West Bay have brought the stadium facilities in line with requirements for international football tournaments, governemnt officials say. Turnaround of the project took three months, from April to July of this year, and cost $1.493 million. Sports Minister Osbourne Bodden said the construction team. had "done a fantastic job in pulling this off. Any doubts I had about the time constraints were quickly laid to rest.” He said the project showed an “incredible value for the money put in” and hoped it would help to “solidify the government’s support for the future development of sport on-island, including sports tourism”.
The Public Works Department recently handed over the keys to the newly completed facilities in West Bay to the Ministry of Sports.
The 5,884-square-foot building includes two changing rooms that each accommodate a 20 person team. Both have their own lockers, whiteboards, a coaches’ room, showers, and a restroom.
Players also now have direct secure access to the changing rooms, so that they do not have to mix with the press or other officials.
Other facilities include a medical suite, anti-doping control room, and a referees’ dressing room, all with their own restrooms and showers. In addition a VIP reception area, secretariat suite, and media/press conference room all overlook the playing field.
Parking services now accommodate large buses and persons with disabilities. Meanwhile brand new public bathrooms have also been added to the building, as well as a concessions room with two roll-down grilles to serve the multitude of fans that attend football games in the district.
In addition the project management team designed and constructed the new structure with the future of the stadium in mind.. As such the roof of the new structure was engineered to provide the base for a possible new grandstand in the future.
Anson M. Stuart, Project Manager for Public Works, and Delano Bush, Site Manager at Arch and Godfrey, led the tour. Garth Arch, Managing Director at Arch and Godfrey, Pedro Theye, Senior Architect at DDL Studio, Alexi Ebanks, Architectural Designer at DDL Studio, and Joel Francis, Senior Policy Advisor in the Ministry with responsibility for Sports, Youth, and Culture, were also present.
Arch commended the efforts of everyone involved with the project, especially Project Manager Dean Gaffigan, and Site Manager Mr Delano Bush, both at Arch and Godfrey.
Government undertook the project to ensure that the stadium would be CONCACAF approved for all future tournaments, including the U-15 girls’ championship beginning on 6 August.
Officials expect the site to be furnished within the next couple of days, in preparation for the start of the tournament.
Representatives from CONCACAF and CIFA also did walkthroughs of the new structure to ensure that the building met all CONCACAF requirements for the upcoming U15 girls’ competition which gets underway this evening Wednesday 6 August 2014.
Dog slaughtered on West Bay beach
(CNS): A man was arrested Monday evening but bailed following what appears to be a senseless and inexplicable slaughter of a young German shepherd mix dog. King belonged to 14-year-old Jimmall Facey, who was playing with the dog, which was not much more than a puppy, on West Bay public beach when he got into an altercation with a 58-year-old man in the area. In an effort to get away from the man, the teenager put his dog on a leach and got on his bike but as he began to ride off with some haste he dropped the leash and as a result the man grabbed the dog. Jimmall told the police that he watched as the suspect broke his dog’s neck and threw King's body in the sea. Horrified, the youngster retrieved his pet’s body and took it home.
According to reports on Cayman 27, it was Jimmall’s mother, Julet Facey, who then reported the shocking slaughter to the police.
“So if you would kill a dog, tell me what you would do to my child,” she asked on the TV news broadcast. “What message are you sending to me as a mother? Well, I kill the son’s dog; that could have been your son.”
Her son added, “If he grabbed me, that’s showing me what he did to the dog [is] what he [would] do to me. Throw me in the sea and nobody would never find me.”
Although the man was arrested he has so far been bailed without charge.
Customs policy absurd
(CNS): The decision by the customs department to start enforcing a 30-year-old policy to have people register their own electronic items before they travel so they do not get charged duty on them is absurd, the Chamber president has said. Johann Moxam is urging the duty enforcement agency to concentrate on the real crime, such as the recent Operation Spearfish, and stop undermining business with pointless and frustrating layer of bureaucracy. In a statement this week that has wide support, the president of the business body pointed out that in the modern age everyone is traveling with electronic devices and registering them before they leave is a step backwards. Customs bosses, however, claimthat it will "provide a smoother" transition.
The policy, which has been in place for three decades, requires those traveling with electronic devices to register them before leaving to verify on return that they are not new acquisitions by the traveller trying to dodge the tax.
However, the Chamber president said, "We live in the information age and carrying electronic devices is a way of life and a business necessity. Registering electronic devices is a waste of time and money and falls into the category of absurdity. We should be trying to simplify the travel experience rather than complicating it with policies that should have been abolished years ago. The Chamber supports lower duty rates for retailers, which would encourage more residents to purchase these items locally rather than abroad. Policy makers and customs officials are placing the emphasis in the wrong area,” Moxam added.
He said Operation Spearfish was the type of exercise where customs should continue to direct resources, as he commended recent efforts to seize containers that are suspected to be packed with stolen goods. The practice of stealing and shipping the booty off island is believed to be common and has gone on almost undetected for years.
“The enforcement section of customs should be commended for taking this action. Stolen goods and contraband distort the local marketplace and harm both businesses and the consumers who purchase the stolen and illegal items. The Chamber encourages customs to focus more energy in this area so that persons who are involved in this illegal activity are brought to justice, not on wedding dresses and registering electronic goods,” Moxam said.
Although the Chamber says that some advances have been made in creating a more business-friendly environment in Cayman as a result of its partnership with government on the Future of Cayman initiative, Moxam warned that there are still too many antiquated and anti-business policies that are regressive and detract from making the Cayman Islands an attractive place to do business.
The customs department has defended this latest clampdown and said that customs has always encouraged the completion of this form for passengers to help clear up customs queries when travelers return. “Otherwise, the customer could be subject to be paying duties on an item," Samantha Bennett the customs boss stated. “It is the passenger’s responsibility to satisfy the officer that duties are not applicable when bringing the item back into the country."
Import duty is charged at 22 percent for electronics, which could prove very costly for travelers, especially if they already paid duty on those items when they first purchased them.
Cops focusing in on speed cameras
(CNS): With speeding motorists remaining a major concern for the public and almost always one of the issues raised at police community meetings by residents, the RCIPS has confirmed that they are planning to install speed cameras in the future. However, police management says it will take time to tender and install the equipment and it will also require the introduction of necessary legislation. With almost 400 miles of roads in Cayman, the RCIPS believes the introduction of the cameras will help curb speeders and make the roads safer as cops can't be everywhere at once. In the meantime, the police are promising more speed traps to put the breaks on local road racers.
However, although the police are likely to put speed cameras on main roads, more often than not public concern over speeding applies to local neighborhoods, where kids are out playing or where people's home lives are disturbed by drivers with heavy feet on the gas pedal along community roads. But as the public is urging the RCIPS to use technology to clamp down on speeding, the police have said they are working on it.
Speaking on Cayman27 this week, Chief Superintendent Kurt Walton said, “I think it will be effective. If you look at the amount of roads we have in the Cayman Islands, we actually have over 396 miles of roads … there’s over 1,300 named roads in the Cayman Islands. We cannot put police officers on every single road. So having the additional asset of speed cameras will certainly allow us to have that extra resource that would certainly aid us.”
He warned, however, that implementation could take years as the law will need to be changed and a tender process followed before anything can be installed.
Dialogue before minimum wage, Moxam urges
(CNS Business): The Chamber of Commerce supports the concept of a minimum wage, Johann Moxam, the Chamber president told CNS Business. But he said it was important that there was a detailed and comprehensive discussion with all relevant stakeholders on the way forward and on the impacts of the introduction of minimum wage legislation in the Cayman Islands. Watch video and comment on CNS Business
Borden guilty of murder
(CNS) Full report: Justice Alex Henderson sentenced Brian Emmanuel Borden (29) to life in prison after finding him guilty of the cold blooded murder of 28-year-old Robert Macford Bush (left) in West Bay on the night of Tuesday 13 September 2011, accepting the prosecution’s case that he was one of two killers who shot Bush in the head at point blank range while he was trapped inside his car, having crashed into a wall as he tried to escape. Borden’s wife collapsed in tears outside the courtroom after the verdict was read but friends and family of Robert Bush were also emotional, as they said that Wednesday, the day of the verdict, was his daughter’s tenth birthday and that he had been a good and loving father. (Left: Robert Macford Bush)
The judge accepted most of the testimony of Marlon Dillon, the crown's key witness who had told the court that Borden had confessed the crime to him in a car early in 2012, as it had been corroborated by several independent witnesses.
Justice Henderson rejected the additional evidence that Dillon had offered in the witness box about Borden telling him that he had run from the scene of the crime, hidden the guns and then showered with H7 bleach to wash away all evidence of the crime, as the judge said he had never spoken of it before. He also did not accept that the confession in the car had taken place on 4 January 2012, finding that, if it had taken place, it happened in February or March that year, as Dillon had said in his first statement to the police on the matter.
The judge said he had good reason to be cautious about the evidence given by Mayra Ebanks, Bush’s girlfriend who was in the passenger seat of his car when he was killed and received superficial wounds from the shotgun pellets. She obviously associated with gang members and three of her boyfriends had been shot and killed, Justice Henderson said, but he believed that she had tried to tell the truth. He said she now lives in another country and in her testimony did not appear to have any bias or animosity towards Borden, with whom she had had a brief and casual sexual relationship.
He did not accept her evidence that she had overheard Borden on the other end of a phone telling Jordan Manderson that he was coming for “the things”, meaning guns, as he said that phone recognition was even more unreliable than sight recognition. However, Justice Henderson did accept her testimony otherwise, including her observations regarding what Manderson and David Ebanks had been wearing as they passed by her moments before the murder as she waited for Bush, and how this differed from the clothing of the two shooters – contradicting the defence’s assertion that these two young men were, in fact, the shooters rather than Borden and Keith Montaque.
The judge also found that Tracy Watler was a reliable and dependable witness, even though she had exaggerated the number of times she had visited Borden in prison. He said her description of Borden’s actions regarding Robert Bush, which amounted to stalking, and the repeated threats to his life supported the central assertion given by Marlon Dillon in his testimony.
The evidence given by the defence’s only witness, Renaldo “Naldo” Sanchez, which had directly contradicted the evidence given by Marlon Dillon that he had dropped Borden off at David Tomasa’s house the day of the confession, was rejected. Sanchez testified that he had never been to Tomasa’s house. However, Justice Henderson said that Sanchez had mislead the court by claiming that he had never been convicted of any offence, and when it was disclosed that he had been convicted of stealing a car, he had claimed he was a minor at the time, which was untrue. Therefore, the judge said he did not believe his evidence and said it “did not have the intended effect of proving Mr Dillon a liar”.
The cell site evidence given by an RCIPS expert witness, which he accepted in full, showed that Brian Borden’s phone was in the area of the murderand not at home with his wife, as he had claimed to police. This, he said, did not prove the location of the defendant but it was a reasonable inference that a phone registered to an individual will remain in the possession of that individual unless there was evidence to the contrary. He therefore rejected Borden’s alibi.
Henderson said there was strong and independent evidence to support the testimony given by Marlon Dillon, who could not have known that the cell site evidence would corroborate his claims that the two shooters were Borden and Montaque.
He said there was no evidence of animosity between Borden and Dillon, and he did not give credibility to the defence’s suggestion that he had implicated Borden in order to protect his family in case Tomasa, who was jailed for his part in two armed robberies partly on Dillon’s testimony, had wanted them harmed.
The judge further noted that Borden had not given evidence himself and he was entitled to draw adverse inference from his silence. He said Borden had been well represented and well advised and his silence could only be attributed to the fact that he had no answer or that his answers would not hold up in court, as he sentenced him to life in prison.
In the spate of tit-for-tat gang murders that were triggered by the death of Robert Bush, 19-year-old Jason Christian was shot dead and Keith Montague was severely injured after both of them were targeted by masked gunmen while sitting in a van in Crewe Road on 20 September 2011. Montaque was airlifted to Jamaica but never returned and efforts to trace him have failed.
Related article:
‘Numbers man’ murder trial
(CNS): The crown’s case against Raziel Omar Jeffers, who is on trial for the murder of a ‘numbers man’ in Maliwinas Way in March 2010, is that he masterminded the robbery of Marcos Mauricio Duran, chose his ‘soldiers’, armed them with lethal weapons and during the course of the planned stick-up, the victim was shot and killed. On Tuesday Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryll Richards, QC, told the one man and eleven women on the jury that there was no suggestion that Jeffers actually delivered the fatal shot or was present when the fatal shot was fired or that his death was intended but that Duran’s death was a “probably consequence” of the nature of the crime.
According to the crown, Jeffers, together with Jordan Manderson, murdered Duran outside the apartment off North West Point Road, West Bay, on 11 March 2010, shortly after 7:20 in the evening. The jury can also consider an alternative charge of manslaughter for Jeffers.
The jury was told that they will hear evidence that just before the death of Duran, Jeffers watched and waited for his arrival, that he informed his ‘soldiers’ – younger members of his gang – when he reached the apartment of a woman to whom he was in the habit of selling illegal lottery ‘numbers’ to. He then informed them when Duran left so that they could carry out the armed robbery. Although there is no evidence that they intended to harm the victim, during the hold-up Duran was fatally shot in the head and once in the hand. Manderson was shot in the leg during the incident.
Richards explained to the jury that because of the nature of the plan and the use of lethal weapons that death or serious injury was a likely scenario. If a person points a loaded weapon at another person they must have intended to use it, she argued.
The DPP also said that Jeffers tried to cover up the crime by helping to clean up the getaway car and that he told his girlfriend to tell a key witness, the woman who was buying the numbers from Duran, to say that members of the rival Logwood gang had carried out the crime.
Richards said that Jeffers told his girlfriend in advance about the planned robbery of the ‘numbers man’. Immediately afterwards, he called her and sounded “panicky” as he asked her to pick him up. At that time he told her that he did not know what had happened but said that “the poor numbers man is dead”.
The jury also heard from the first two witnesses. A neighbour who heard the gunshots that night and called 911 said he saw "a shadow" of a person moving behind the apartments when he arrived one or two minutes later.
The first police officer at the scene said that he looked at Duran's wallet to find identification and found CI$225 and US$40 was still inside.
Turtle Farm hiding behind ‘conservation curtain’
(CNS Business): The Cayman Turtle Farm claims to be a conservation facility but World Animal Protection (WAP) representative Neil D’Cruze says those claims may not be true and there may be an element of a “conservation curtain that is being hidden behind”. He said that the release of farmed turtles could be introducing disease to wild turtle populations. Watch video and comment on CNS Business
Met back behind Bridger
(CNS): The former employers of the SIO on the ill-fated Operation Tempura police corruption probe have signalled their renewed support of their ex-top cop. In what is perhaps the first indication that the Metropolitan Police has concerns about the ongoing cover-up of elements of the investigation conducted by Martin Bridger between 2007 and 2009, the London police force has suddenly turned the cash back on for his protracted legal battles with both the Cayman government and the former police commissioner, Stuart Kernohan. The cash flow returnsjust as the RCIPS said they are investigating Bridger and his allegations and as Cayman waits to see if the governor's office will finally release documents relating to the enquiry after fighting tooth and nail to keep them secret.
The governor's office remains tight lipped in the face of the latest order by the acting information commissioner to release the documents which were the subject of a freedom of information request, but there are now only a few weeks remaining before, in accordance with the law, the UK's representative must release the papers or take the ICO back to court for another costly judicial review.
Bridger is now reportedly the subject of an RCIPS probe into allegations he made to the Metropolitan Police about how he, and in turn Scotland Yard, may have been grossly mislead by Attorney General Samuel Bulgin, the FCO's Security Advisor for the overseas territories, Larry Covington, and then governor Stuart Jack. However, Bridger has now got the backing of his former bosses in yet another strange twist in the ongoing saga of Operation Tempura.
Sources close to the issue who cannot yet be named have confirmed that as much as $300,000 of UK tax payers’ money has been made available to Bridger to pay outstanding costs relating to his fight so far but also to use in his fight to expose damning documents that he wants to use in his defence against a law suit filed by Kernohan. The Met's sudden support of Bridger is a clear indication not just of their obligation to him as an employee at the time but also that the leading UK police service could have concerns about how the probe has been handled by the FCO.
During the lifetime of the discredited operation, which has cost the Cayman tax payer millions without a single successful prosecution, Bridger has persistently claimed to have acted in good faith and entirely on the advice of legal counsel provided by the attorney general or governor's office. He has stated publicly that he documented every twist and turn of the probe, which went from the clearance of allegations of corruption of one leading police officer to the suspension of three others and the unchallenged finding of an unlawful arrest of a Grand Court judge.
However, some of these documents generated by Bridger during Tempura are subject to a court order and he has been banned from using them to justify his claims or defend himself in the ongoing law suit with Kernohan.
During the course of the enquiry, Bridger, who arrived while employed directly by the Metropolitan Police, reached his retirement age and as a result he was re-contracted via the governor's office. But trusted sources have also told CNS that Scotland Yard continued to supervise the probe indirectly with the controversial John Yates remaining as the overall boss of the operation. As a result, CNS has learned the UK cops continue to have an obligation to Bridger to support him through the courts with regard to work he did under the Met's supervision.
However, the London force abandoned Bridger about two years ago and, according to sources, "left Bridger out to dry" but have suddenly done an about face and refunded the former officer's legal fights.
Bridger, who has been banned from talking about his complaint and the subsequent decision by Duncan Taylor that it was unfounded, recently told CNS that it is still difficult for him to talk openly about many aspects of the probe, something he would dearly love to do, but he said that his main hope is that the full truth of what happened during this much maligned investigation will eventually come out. He said, "When the people of the Cayman Islands know the full and complete truth, they can then make a fair decision about what I did and judge me accordingly," he stated.
Pressing for the whole truth, Bridger said he was hopeful that the report based on his complaint will be released in the coming weeks as that, he said, willreveal some important parts of the wider jigsaw that is Operation Tempura. However, he said, there is still much more that needs to be revealed and when he is able lawfully to tell his story, Bridger has stated he would be happy to come to Cayman and do so. He said the Caymanian people have a right to know the details of what happened and the reasons why certain decisions were made, based on what advice and by whom.
Although the complaint, which remains the subject of the FOI battle with the ICO and the governor's office, was originally made by Martin Polaine, a former legal advisor on the probe, when he withdrew Bridger carried on with the complaint. When the report into the complaint was concluded and he governor made a decision, Bridger was told he could only see the content of the report if he agreed to maintain confidentiality.
Since the fight to keep this report under wraps has been underway, Kernohan has settled with the Cayman Islands Government over his alleged unlawfuldismissal during Tempura. He has now also been silenced as a result of a payout estimated to be in the region of $600,000 and paid for by the Cayman tax payer.
However, there remains numerous unanswered questions over the probe, which has been the subject of allegations and counter allegations. As the twists and turns in the fallout from Tempura continue, all eyes remain on the governor's office and the possible release of what are believed to be damning documents concerning the oversight and mismanagement of the probe as well as who advised who about what.
If the documents are released, the Cayman public may begin to see at least some of the real Tempura picture, though by no means all of it. If, however, the governor decides the documents cannot be released into the public domain, the Cayman tax payer will once again be footing the bill to help the governor's office, and by extension the FCO, cover-up whatever it is they don't want the public to know.
Cops warn public to remain vigilant as thefts increase
(CNS): Following the recent revelations that the theft has increased in the first half of this year more than 80% compared to the first six months of 2013, the RCIPS is urging people to be more vigilant over their homes, businesses and property. Although serious crime fell marginally in the first part of 2014 compared to last year, the boom in thievery pushed the overall crime rate up by more than27%. While the fall in burglaries was welcomed by the police as that remains a specific concern for the wider public, the increase in theft will require extra vigilance, the police said.
"The RCIPS continues to urge the public to do what they can to help by ensuring vehicles, boats, sheds and yards are kept secure and items such as cameras, computers and phones are kept out of view and locked away," an RCIPS spokesperson stated, as he warned people to take care when parking their cars. "Wherever possible leave it in an area that is well lit and away from anywhere a potential thief could hide."
The police also asked people to report anyone acting suspiciously in their communities and neighbourhoods.
If any member of the public would like to receive further crime prevention advice, they are asked to contact their local police station where they will be put in touch with the neighbourhood officer.