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Four years for double arson conviction
(CNS): A 32-year-old George Town man was sentenced to four years imprisonment after submitting guilty pleas before Justice Alex Henderson for a double arson attack in 2011. Sven Conner was convicted for two counts of arson and being reckless to life when he set fire to an air-conditioning unit at the residence of Theresa Brown and Eric Russell. After Brown alerted the fire service to the first fire and they moved across to her mother’s home on the same property, Brown and Russell were awoken by dogs barking and another fire. Justice Henderson commented that this case was “not the most serious of offenses to come before the court” but that Conner's previous criminal history was extensive.
Sven Connor, known as “Dappa”, was in a stormy relationship with Theresa Brown, who is the mother of four children. Although Brown and Connor did not have children together, he would still help her financially. The couple separated during an argument that occurred when Connor was in custody for an unrelated incident and had given Brown some cash. It came to Connor’s attention that some of the funds had notbeen used as Brown had said.
When Connor returned from jail in December 2011, he met with Brown after work and another argument arose, with Brown’s suspicion of his infidelity.
At approximately 10:45pm on the night of the incident, Connor went to see Theresa but he came upon another man, who described himself as being Brown’s new boyfriend. Sven and Brown’s new boyfriend, Eric Russell, got into a physical altercation and a few members of Brown’s family parted them. While he was leaving, Connor made idle threats towards the family. In fear of Connor returning, Brown sent her children to sleep with her mother in a nearby residence on the same property.
An intoxicated Connor returned sometime after midnight and decided, on the spur of the moment, to set a fire to Brown’s home. The couple alerted the Cayman Islands Fire Service and the fire, which destroyed various household items, was extinguished quickly.
Shortly afterwards, Russell and Brown were awoken to the surprise of another blaze, this time to the exterior of Brown’s mother’s residence, where they had moved to sleep after the first fire.
Defense Counsel Nick Hoffman submitted that his client was in an intoxicated state due to the consummation of alcohol and cannabis and therefore became confused as to which house was Brown's residence, which led him to start the second fire. The damage is estimated to be valued at around CI $5,000. Connor said his intention was not to harm anyone, but to frighten Brown, while he was in a fit of anger.
“I don’t infer that the intent was to harm anyone,” Justice Henderson commented. "We’re not talking about a case where the defendant went out with the intent to kill.”
In the most recent prison report, Connor tested positive for cannabis. Defense counsel stated that this said “sadly more about the prison than the individual”. Justice Henderson agreed by adding that this news was “not quite remarkable” to him. Included in the prison report, it is stated that Connor had some disciplinary issues but these were resolved, and that he is currently a member of the Inmate Counsel. In addition, it stated that Connor is taking classes for anger management which helps with the treatment of his depressive disorder, along with other courses.
Justice Henderson said he took all of this into account, along with Connor’s letter detailing his remorse and desire to change his life. Sven received full credit for entering a guilty plea prior to the beginning of a trial, the judge said. Although Connor had served a ten year prison sentence for manslaughter and was convicted of possession of an unlicensed firearm, Justice Henderson said he was not permitted to punish him a second time for that.
In his conclusion, the judge accepted that there was a risk of the fire spreading and people getting hurt but that these could not be accepted as aggravating features of the incident as they were typical features of an arson case and no one was harmed. A sentence of six years was considered appropraite by the judge who gave connor a two year discount for his guilty plea. The judge also ordered that Connor's time in custody would be taken into consideration.
The Brac: a casino or bust
Most of the money circulating around Cayman Brac is sourced from government, in other words the majority of the jobs on the island are either within the public service or rely on public servants as customers. This plus a high social services tab means that the Brac economy is heavily dependent on government funding – a very unhealthy situation for all concerned, including people on Grand Cayman who have to pay for it.
For all the money that has been spent on the Brac over the last four years (such as the lovely dual carriageway with roundabouts in the middle of nowhere, the Hurricane Hilton, and the paving of private parking lots), absolutely nothing has been accomplished towards the long-term economic health of the island. Creating a few more government jobs doesn’t count. What Cayman Brac needs is a major boost to its private sector to make it less dependent on government, not more.
The one rather wobbly leg of private sector industry on Cayman Brac is tourism, which received a body blow when the Divi Tiara Beach Resort, one of only two hotels on the island at that time, suddenly closed in September 2006, and not just because of the 37 people who lost their jobs. Improving airlift, one of the main reasons cited by Divi for closing the resort, is even harder to justify with fewer passengers, so tourism suffers generally.
The only major project started under the UDP/UDP Lite administration (too late to see it anywhere near finished) that would have long term benefits to the Brac economy was the expansion of the airport, including the all-important addition of the baggage screening equipment required by the US for flights into that country. So far, only the enabling work has begun, and with scandal engulfing the Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA), it’s uncertain now whether or not this project will continue.
Either way, Cayman Airways (or any other airline) could not add jet flights between the US and Cayman Brac without a guarantee of more passengers coming to the island or transiting to Little Cayman. In order to achieve this, the island needs the development of a good sized hotel, say 200+ rooms, but any developer prepared to build a resort of that size would need to feel confident that they could fill it.
So what does the Brac have to offer?
Both Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which is a short hop away, offer world class diving. It’s why visitors have been coming here since the 70’s, and for this reason, if for no other, the people of Cayman Brac and their elected representatives should take the greatest care to protect the reefs and the creatures that inhabit them.
Rock climbing the Bluff is also world class, according to the serious climbers that come here. Skip Harper, author of an excellent travel book Adventuring on Cayman Brac, discovered the potential of the Brac as a climbing destination in the mid 1990’s. Since then, the climbers have created a number of climbing routes with titanium bolts, which they paid for themselves. What is needed now is a government that truly supports the development of rock climbing – already largely in place – so that it can be promoted as a primary attraction for the island, not more non-committal ‘yes, we’re looking into it’, which has become the norm for successive administrations.
The development of nature tourism on the island has been ongoing for the last 15 years, and will be an important secondary attraction for as long as it is adequately protected, especially the island’s limited wetlands. More boardwalks along some of the trails, some of which are pretty rough going, would have been a better investment in the island than paving the bank’s parking lot for free.
But there’s little else to bring travelers here – not much of a nightlife, no shopping to speak of, little in the way of protected waters for watersports, and no golf course. Rock climbing isn’t for everyone and the Brac’s nature tourism, given all the beautiful places in the region competing for this market, is never going to be a primary attraction for significant numbers of visitors.
Cayman Brac desperately needs another major pull to bring people here, and the only thing that would not destroy a large section of the island’s very limited natural resources but make a real impact on tourism is a casino.
Could the Divi Resorts Group be induced to rebuild on the Brac if a casino licence was on the table? Possibly, but we won’t know until the Cayman government (the next one) starts negotiating to find out what it would take. Tourism from the US and Canada is currently on the upswing, so it would seem to be a good time to reach out to them before they decide to invest somewhere else.
Sandy beaches protected by a reef barrier, of the type a major investor would be looking for, are in short supply on the Brac and are confined to a small corner in the southwest of the island. The property owned by the Divi Group, the site of the old Tiara, is prime beachfront land and Divi could have sold it many times over the last six and a half years. But they haven’t and have repeatedly stated in press interviews that they intend to rebuild, keeping the door open to a return to the Brac even while they were investing heavily on other Caribbean islands.
Divi has a chain of resorts – five in Aruba (where they also have a 30-foot artificial rock climbing wall), as well as hotels in Barbados, Bonaire, St Croix and St Maarten. Aside from Barbados, which has several golf courses available to guests, all of their resorts offer casinos as a major attraction, some of which are owned and operated by Divi itself – the Alhambra Casino in Aruba, the Divi Flamingo Casino in Bonaire, and the Carina Bay Casino in St Croix. So, clearly they have the experience to operate a casino on Cayman Brac and, importantly, the marketing resources to make it work.
But the other question is whether Brackers would accept the idea of a casino and lobby government to change the laws to legalise it, at least for the Brac if not for all three Cayman Islands.
To my mind, the question of gambling has been answered, as it has on Grand Cayman, by the ubiquitous presence and general acceptance of the illegal numbers racket. Any politician or concerned citizen who is truly against gambling on moral grounds should be working with the police to stamp it out. If they haven’t provided the RCIPS with a list of players and sellers, either they don't know what's going on or their protests are half-hearted at best. A casino would at least be legal, and therefore controlled, and a licence could be confined to hotel guests, thereby eliminating the negative social effects on the community (unlike numbers).
With the inevitable tightening of government spending, many of the unnecessary jobs on Cayman Brac and government handouts could dry up in an economy where people and businesses are already hanging on by their toes.
So, if it came down to a choice between a casino and the gradual demise of Cayman Brac, what then?
Anglin signs tax info exchange agreement in Brazil
(CNS Business): The Cayman Islands Government has finally signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the Republic of Brazil. This is the 31st such tax greement the government has signed and the deal is expected to not only help with Cayman’s goal of increased transparency but will also help build on business relationships that are already in place. It will provide a springboard for future collaboration on areas of mutual interest that can facilitate economic growth and development in both countries, officials from the financial services ministry stated. The deal was signed in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday 19 March by Rolston Anglin, the minister responsible for the financial services sector. Read more and comment on CNS Business
Mac charged with theft
(CNS): The former premier of the Cayman Islands has been charged with a variety of offences, including theft, according to the RCIPS. A police spokesperson said Wednesday afternoon that when William McKeeva Bush answered his bail this afternoon, he was formally charged with two counts of misconduct in a public office, four counts of breach of trust by a member of the Legislative Assembly (contrary to S.13 of the Anti-Corruption Law 2008), and five counts of theft (contrary to S.241 of the Penal Code 2007 Revision). Bush, who is the first elected member for West Bay, has been bailed to appear in Grand Court on 12April, six weeks before the General Election.
Related article:
Mac’s case in hands of DPP (CNS, Tuesday 19 March)
Divi open to Brac re-build with eco-friendly resort
(CNS Business): The property on Cayman Brac owned by Divi Resorts Group is not for sale and the firm is committed to re-developing the resort when the global economic business environment supports such development, according to President & CEO, EJ Schanfarber. Divi Tiara Beach Resort, a 51-room hotel with 12 timeshare units, closed on the 23 September 2006 with the loss of 37 jobs on the island. But the hotel chain, which has a number of resorts in Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, St Croix, and St Maarten, does plan to rebuild on the Brac, especially since it offers the opportunity to build an eco-friendly resort from the ground up that is integrated with the fragile environment of the island. (Left: Divi Tiara in better days) Read more on CNS Business.
Bad weather prevents Brac cruise ship call
(CNS): Choppy waters on the north coast of Cayman Brac caused the MS Delphin, a small cruise ship scheduled to make a rare stop at the Sister Island, to pass by without any passengers disembarking. According to a spokesperson for District Administration, the captain of the ship decided the anchorage site was not safe for getting the passengers off and on the ship. The Delphin, which has around 300 passengers, would have been the first cruise ship for five years to make a port of call at the Brac and was the last ship to visit the island on Easter Monday in 2008. Pre-booked island tours were on offer for the cruise ship visitors as well as an information booth, a craft market and samples of local food. (Photo by Monte Thornton)
Related article on CNS Business:
Small cruise ship stopping at Cayman Brac
(CNS Business): The first cruise ship for five years will stop at Cayman Brac next week. The MS Delphin, operated by Passat Kreuzfahrten (Cruises), which has its headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, will have 300+ passengers onboard and 119 crew when she arrives off the coast from Scotts Dock in the West End on Tuesday 5 March, staying for five hours between 8am – 1pm, according to a spokesperson for District Administration. Passengers will have the opportunity for an island tour pre-booked by the ship and there will be an information booth, a craft market as well a few samples of local food, she said. The ship will tender its own passengers. Read more on CNS Business
Brac student awarded pharmacy scholarship
(CNS): First recipient of the Dispenser Lawford Lawrence Scholarship Fund, Rudy Walton, recently received a cheque of US $500 to assist with the purchasing of books for his second semester at Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA). This fund, which is supported by local sponsors, was established in November 2007 to encourage young Caymanians to pursue a career in pharmacy. Rudy, an honours graduate from the Layman E Scott Sr High School, Cayman Brac; is enrolled in the School of Arts and Sciences at PBA and majors in medicinal and biological chemistry with concentration in pharmaceutical studies. (Photo: L-R Rudy Walton, his mother Laura Walton and Dhallchand Seeram)
Chairman of the organizing committee, Dhallchand Seeram, Secretary Pedro Lazzari , Treasurer Ivalee Scott and other well-wishers thanked all sponsors for their generous contributions over the years.
Cuban teenager no longer on migrant vessel
(CNS): Update 2:05pm Tuesday — Six of the 21 Cuban migrants who departed Cayman Brac waters yesterday (Monday, 4 February) landed last night on Little Cayman, officials said Tuesday afternoon. Immigration officers are arranging for the five males, including a 15-year-old boy, and one female to be transported to Grand Cayman for processing. The others continued on their journey in the early hours of this morning. The Cubans, which included three women and the teenage boy,.arrived off the northern coast of Cayman Brac last Friday morning, 1 February. All of them appeared to be in good health, officials said Monday.
Immigration and RCIP officials from Grand Cayman monitored the situation over the weekend, and they departed Monday, 4 February in their 25-foot craft. Immigration officers and Marine officers from the Brac monitored their departure for a distance but no communication was had after that point.
Three break-ins at Brac businesses
(CNS): The Captain's Table Bar & Restaurant became the third business on Cayman Brac to be robbed in ten days Saturday night when one or more burglars broke into the premises and stole cash from a safe. This follows similar break-ins at a liquor store and a souvenir shop the week before. According to Inspector Pearson Best of the Brac police station, cash and liquor were reported stolen from Big Daddy's Fine Wine & Spirits on 24 January, and the next day the RCIPS received another report that jewellry and watches had been taken from the Treasure Chest in Tibbetts Square. No one has been arrested in connection with any of the break-ins.
Police said that on Thursday 24 January at about 9:35am, they received a report of a burglary at Big Daddy's on Gerrard Smith Ave, Southside. Police officers investigating the scene found that entry was gained to the building through the front door by forcing the lock. A quantity of cash and liquor were stolen.
A search of the immediate area was carried out along with house to house inquiries. Inspector Best said that there are suspects at this time but no one have been arrested, noting that there are no CCTV cameras on the premises or nearby.
Further inquiries and information received led to search warrants being executed at a number of premises with negative results.
The next day, Friday 25 January, at about 8:44am a report was received of a burglary atthe Treasure Chest store in Tibbetts Square, West End.
Inquiries revealed that one or more culprits forced the front door and damaged the door casing in the area of the lock. Assorted jewelry and watches were stolen. A search of the immediate area was carried out as well as inquiries with other businesses in the area. CCTV footage was examined with negative results.
Further inquiries and information received led to search warrants being executed at a number of premises with negative results.
On Saturday 2 February at about 11:00am Cayman Brac police received a report of a burglary at the Captain's Table Bar & Restaurant on Bert Marson's Drive, Southside. Police officers found that the rear door locks were forced opened and the culprit or culprits gained entry, stole cash from a safe and left as they entered.