Headline News
Robbers hurt elderly couple
(CNS): Updated 2:30pm. Police have now confirmed reports that an elderly couple in the Lower Valley area were injured during a home invasion at around 11:15pm on Saturday night. Police said two masked men entered a home on the corner of Shamrock Rd and Carmen Blvd armed and at least one was armed with a gun. The robbers demanded cash and repeatedly assaulted the couple are in their eighties when their demands were not met. They were both taken to hospital where they were treated for their injuries. A police spokesperson said a substantial investigation has been launched and police are following up on current lines of enquiry to apprehend the offenders.
The men are described as young males of slim to medium build one of whom was taller than the other and both had Cayman accents. They wore dark clothing and masks along with baseball hats.
Detective Superintendent Marlon Bodden the Head of Specialist Support Operations said he is appealing for information from the criminal fraternity. Bodden said crimes against the elderly are "atrocious, frightening and disrespectful" and certainly not the type of reward expected for their significant contribution to the society.
This is the third home invasion this month and the second involving elderly members of the community. On 2 December police hauled a robber from the water at Dray Quay after an 80-year-old woman found two masked robbers in her home in Magellan Quay, and on Thursday night (9 December) three masked men invaded a home in Sweet Gum Lane in West Bay.
Armed, masked men invade West Bay home
(CNS): Police are investigating an aggravated burglary in which the victim reported finding three men in his living room, all wearing dark clothing and masks, on Thursday night (9 December). An RCIPS spokesperson revealed that the victim had said two of the men were in possession of firearms — a shot gun and a revolver — while the third offender was carrying a machete. The offenders demanded money but were unsuccessful and fled empty handed from the home in Sweet Gum Lane. Police said an extensive search was made of the area in the wake of the report made at 11:39pm but there was no trace of the suspects. Two other occupants of the house also allege they were held at gunpoint but nothing was stolen.
The police said one of the men, who was carrying the revolver, was descried as 5’8" tall, slim built, dressed in black shirt and what seemed to be a shirt covering his face. No other descriptions were offered of the suspects.
Police said investigations are continuing by West Bay CID and anyone with information about this is asked tocontact them on 949-3999 or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477.
No room for local law clerks
(CNS): The question of why, when there are around 550 lawyers licensed to practice in Cayman, there is no room for 11 young Caymanians seeking positions as articled clerks was a point of concern for both sides of the Legislative Assembly on Thursday morning. Two questions put to the attorney general by George Town MLA Alden McLaughlin raised the issue of why it was so difficult for the young would-be lawyers who had studied at the Cayman Islands Law School, which was now widely respected, to find a law firm to train them. With 368 non-Caymanian lawyers called to the bar in the last five years, the premier said he would act to force firms to train young local lawyers.
Attorney General Samuel Bulgin said it should be part of a lawyer’s DNA to both train law school graduates and do pro bono work. He added that government should not have to compel the legal profession to undertake this important role as they should be doing it as part of their profession. But he said there were a number of reasons why firms were not taking on clerks, the main one being the economic circumstances.
McLaughlin asked what efforts were being made to put pressure on legal firms to provide the necessary training opportunities for young Caymanians. The AG said his office was speaking with the profession to try and find places for the eleven graduates.
“Overtures have been made to the people who operate the firms and appeals made for them to try and accommodate the people seeking articles,” Bulgin said, adding that over the last six years some fourteen lawyers had articled in the AG’s chambers. He said it was regrettable that the firms would have to be pressured to offer training to new lawyers.
When Miller asked the AG to speak with the business staffing plan board to put a stop on all permits for overseas lawyers with less than ten years experience until these eleven Caymanians found articles, Bulgin suggested that would be difficult.
He confirmed that work-permits were not given to law firms for attorneys with less than three years work experience and that entry level positions were reserved for Caymanians. He admitted, however, there were a few article clerks training at law firms who were not Caymanian but had “Caymanian connections”, such as being married to locals or with parents who were long time residents.
Arden McLean suggested that firms which had clerks that were not Caymanians should be compelled to also take one of the eleven now seeking articles. He said it was a vexing situation and suggested that the “legal fraternity was not so noble” a profession as they would like people to believe.
The AG said he would hold a meeting with the profession as he was also disappointed that these eleven law school graduates were still trying to find a place.
The premier said he had very real concerns that there were some 550 lawyers registered to practice in Cayman but young Caymanians were not being given an opportunity. He warned that he would be looking at some kind of compulsion under the new legal practitioner’s bill that was currently still under discussion, but government would see to it that there was some kind of obligation.
“We have that many lawyers and you tell me that they can’t find room for 11?” he queried. “I will bring government authority to bear on this.”
McKeeva Bush pointed out that it was not a new situation and that from the time the Law School started 27 years ago local law firms avoided taking on young Caymanian law graduates. “The regime must change and I will see that it will change,” the premier stated, adding that it was a very important matter.
Mac’s first steps to recovery
(CNS): Following some 250 suggestions from more than a dozen organisations and the wider public, the premier announced a stimulus package on Thursday evening that commentators are likely to say falls short when it comes to kick-starting the local economy. He said the measures were preliminary moves that had the potential to benefit the economy in the short term. Announcing a possible reprieve on loan payments at some banks, a duty reduction on some unspecified goods by unspecified amounts and immigration changes, the premier said that apart from funding the clean-up campaign to give people temporary work, it should be the private sector that drove job creation not government.
Confirming a number of changes to immigration policy that would affect high net worth people and foreign investors, as well as lifting visa requirements for Chinese and Jamaicans, the premier offered no news on significant wider changes, in particular to the rollover policy. There was also no mention of the reduction in permit and trade and business licence fees for small businesses, which the premier had previously hinted at.
Bush said a package on attracting physical presence financial services would be announced next year. “In collaboration with key financial sector stakeholders, a promotional strategy to encourage physical presence in financial services operations will be unveiled in the first quarter of 2011,” the premier said in his address to the country.
“This strategy will, at the very least, bring our jurisdiction on par with our competitors in terms of international promotional and marketing efforts. The success of this promotional strategy will not only address what is known as the ‘substantial presence’ issue but it will also create new white-collar jobs by supporting top quality organisations to combine their talent with the talent present in the Cayman Islands.”
He confirmed the introduction of a special one to five day temporary permit for those business travellers visiting for legitimate business purposes. He further revealed that in an effort to become more customer friendly, procedures at the airport were being reviewed so those attending business meetings would be “greeted by a truly welcoming atmosphere”.
Announcing stimulus for tourism, he said government would develop and implement strategies to increase target market visitor arrivals, improve the tangible and intangible visitor experience, improve Spotts Dock and develop a private and public strategy for national beautification. He also stated that Cayman Airways and the Department of Tourism were now working in close alignment to make the best use of the national airline and to work with sports organisations to develop a sports tourism strategy.
Despite the recent setback over the George Town port, the premier pointed to the cruise berthing development as a high priority project.
The government was also moving ahead on facilitating the Dr Devi Shetty’s hospital project, he noted, which, along with the resumption of the school projects as well as a new project to renovate the primary schools, would create jobs.
“Under my government’s stewardship, the recommencement of the new high schools project will provide much needed additional stimulus to the struggling construction industry,” Bush said. “Of particular note is the Ministry of Education’s innovative approach, which will result in some 70 construction works packages being tendered this financial year. These packages are worth approximately $14 million dollars. This approach will result in a wide range of contractors, large and small, benefiting, not just a select few. This will be a welcome relief to the many hard working Caymanian families who rely on the construction industry for their livelihood.”
Bush went on to say that the announcement was an outline of the short-term measures selected by the government. “Some of them will require specific details to be approved by Cabinet. Others will need further discussion with the private sector to ensure the maximum benefit is realized,” he added. “Nevertheless, my government will pursue these short-term stimulus measures with the urgency that our economic and financial situation demands. It will take time to see the full results. But we must stay the course if our efforts are to bear good fruit. There will be bumps and obstacles in the way, but we must overcome them. Nothing good comes easy.”
The premier went on to say that he would be speaking to the nation again before Christmas and would have more details on the stimulus in the New Year.
CS fat cats thin on ground
(CNS): Contrary to some perceptions in the private sector, this year’s human resources report on the civil service has revealed that very few public servants are getting fat on the public purse. Almost a quarter of the country’s civil servants earn less than $30,000 per annum and over 70% earn less than $50,000. Only 86 workers on the public payroll earn $100,000 and over, and only two earn over $200,000. The report reveals, however, that despite the continuing recruitment cuts and government efforts to reduce the headcount, the number of public servants did not fall significantly over the 2009/10 financial year. On 30 June 2010 there were 3,687 civil servants, only 69 less than the 3,756 in June 2009.
There are a further ,2194 people working in statutory authorities and government companies that are also paid from the public purse, leading to a total of 5,881 people dependent on government for a living.
The report was laid on the table of the Legislative Assembly on Thursday morning by Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks, who admitted that the decline in numbers was not happening as quickly as he had hoped.
“We have to drive down, more aggressively, the size of the overall organisation,” Ebanks told MLAs as he presented the report, adding that government was committed to cutting the cost of the public sector. He did, however, point out that calls to cut the top earnings as a way of reducing the cost of the civil service would achieve little impact, given how few were revealed to be in those top earning grades. Most civil servants, he noted, were in the lower earning brackets.
Ebanks also touched on the sensitive issue of those in the service that were over sixty years old and still in post. The deputy governor said that around 5% of public servants were at retirement age, and as difficult as it was for those who believed they were still healthy and experienced enough to carry on working to step down, it was the only way that young people would have the opportunity to start their careers.
“It’s a sensitive issue for those who want to carry on, but the flip side is the need to give young people a start,” he said, adding that some people had already had some 40 years “in the trough” and needed to give others a chance. The report also reveals that there is one employee over the age of 80 still working and 181 people are aged between 60 and 80 years old. The vast majority of civil service employees are aged between 30 and 55 years.
More than 72% of civil servants and some 74% of those working in other government entities are Caymanian, according to the report, with the continuing increase of Caymanians in the public sector over the last ten years. There are only five departments in core government where more than half of the work force is not Caymanian, whereas seven departments employ 100% Caymanian staff and more than half of the 57 departments have an 80% or more Caymanian workforce.
While men still dominate the senior positions in the public sector, 53% of the overall workforce is female but women account for the vast majority of low paying positions.
Although Caymanians account for the greater percentage of employees, the service employs workers from some 37 other nations. Jamaicans account for the largest percentage of non-Caymanian workers at 12.6%, and alongside the governor there are 168 British civil servants, accounting for 4.6% of the working population. Although workers from the wider Caribbean make up the greater percentage of foreign civil servants, the public sector employs people from as far afield as Denmark and Zambia.
New hope for teen offenders
(CNS): The minister of community affairs says that the whole approach to how the country deals with young offenders is going to change but there are challenges when it comes to sending them overseas to boot or survival camps and other rehabilitation centres because of immigration problems. In the wake of a conditional discharge given to a teen last week on a gun offence, because of the limited options under a rehabilitation order, Mike Adam said he was working towards finding ways of sending teens to a specialist centre in Missouri. Last Friday a sixteen year old, boy convicted of possession of an unlicensed firearm was discharged by the court on the condition that he attendsa rehab unit in the United States.
Justice Smith had wanted to make a rehabilitation order for the teen offender to go to the Second Nature Wilderness programme in Georgia, a specialist treatment centre for youngsters with drug and behavioural problems, and then on to a boarding school as his sentence for the crime under the youth justice law. However, as only Tranquillity Bay in Jamaica which is now closed, the Francis Bodden Home, a girl’s institution and the Bonaventure Boys Home are gazetted in the law for rehabilitation orders the judge chose a different approach.
Giving the young person a conditional discharge means he avoided the problem of a criminal record which stands in the way of youngster being sent to the United States on rehabilitation orders. The judge made the teen’s attendance at the centre, which his parents are voluntarily paying for, a condition of his discharge while at the same time placing him under the supervision of a social worker to ensure compliance.
The issue of being able to send youngsters with a criminal conviction against them overseas however, presents problems Adam explained but said his ministry is working to try and find a way to send youngsters to the Missouri Youth Services Institute (MYSI) — the centre which Cayman’s own young offenders institute will be based on when it is finished.
“We are making further enquiries to determine if we can make this a reality,” he said adding that Cayman would soon have its own purpose built facility.
He said the law needs to be changed with regard to the institutes that are gazetted but he also spoke about a new approach to dealing with young offenders at home. He said sending youngsters to Eagle House was not working and it was inappropriatefor them to be housed alongside adult prisoners.
“We definitely want to move away from that kind of incarceration where we have been virtually warehousing young people,” Adam said.
Before Cayman’s own centre is finished Adam said that one of the properties at Bonaventure is going to be renovated and made into a secure unit, where the courts can send teens who have been convicted and where the model of therapeutic treatment adopted by the MYSI will be used before the purpose built centre is finished.
The Missouri approach moves away from a correctional punishment or containment to one of rehabilitation, treatment, and education through pier programmes and quality teaching. Adam said the model which Cayman will adopt has revolutionized the treatment of young offenders in Missouri and while there will be some adaption to meet Cayman’s needs once the facility is built and the specialist staff have been retained and existing staff trained, there will be new hope for the way young offenders in Cayman are treated.
“We are really excited about getting this new approach in place as it really is awesome,” Adman said, adding that when he visited the MYSI it was a true eye-opener as to what can be done with youngsters with the right programme. “You see hope in their faces.” He said the centre has had real and impressive success dealing with kids who had been gang members and committed serious crimes.
Adam said the facilities are not elaborate as the model is about the staff and the therapeutic approach which has revolutionized young offender rehabilitation. The centre has claimed a 93% success rate with the youngsters as only 7% reoffend within three years after their attendance. It also has a better educational achievement rate than the US school system with 91% of the young people earning high school credits compared to 46% nationally.
Mac to reveal path to success with stimulus package
(CNS): The country’s premier says that he will be making a public announcement tomorrow evening revealing how he intends to get Cayman back on the road to economic recovery. A statement from the premier’s press office on Wednesday said that McKeeva Bush will make a national address on Thursday, which will be broadcast courtesy ofRadio Cayman and the television station, Cayman 27. Bush will announce measures aimed at stimulating the economy in line with the promise he made in an earlier national address in September. During that speech the premier told the people he was confident that within 90 days of the TV broadcast Cayman would be back on the road to success.
The statement from the press office said that after taking input from various sectors the premier will again speak to the country, a week before his own self imposed deadline, to announce the measures that will deliver on that commitment and will return the Cayman Islands to the path that created its success.
"I am confident that within 90 days of today, Cayman will be back on the path which created its success. It will not be complete, no, but we will be moving forward," the premier said on 16 September.
He had spoken about strengthening incentives, changing immigration policies (including a contracted rollover period), assisting small businesses and speeding up the offshore licensing process as part of the solution to the current economic difficulties. He also announced the formation of some more committees to examine the situation. Bush said that government had contracted Jude Scott to oversee the implementation of various projects and initiatives it was considering, and heads of departments across government were being asked to deliver “statistics and information” to the Ministry of Finance to assist in the monitoring of economic activity.
Since then he has hinted at a stimulus package that would assist the offshore sector, he has pointed to possible duty concessions and the reduction of trade and business licenses, as well as work permit fees for small businesses.
The address announcing what measures government has now decided to take will air on Radio Cayman immediately following the 6pm and 10pm newscast on Thursday evening and after the 8am newscast on Friday morning. Cayman 27 will televise the address at 8pm on Thursday evening.
Check CNS on Thursday evening for a report on the announcements. We will also be reporting on any details of the expected stimulus from the floor of the Legislative Assembly, which resumes on Thursday.
2nd choice gets chance at port
(CNS): Despite comments from the chairman of the Port Authority just over a week ago that DECCO (aka Dart) was still at the cruise port project negotiating table, government has now confirmed it has been talking to the second choice developer. An official government statement on Wednesday revealed the Dart deal was over and it had moved to a new deal with GLF Group/Royal Construction to build the George Town cruise piers. Government admitted that a mutually acceptable deal couldn’t be reached with DECCO but said the developer had agreed to make the existing “completed work package” likely to include the Environmental Impact assessment, which has not yet been made public, available to the Port Authority.
“This will allow the Port Authority to progress with the project without losing time to replicate this effort; and the government and the Port Authority acknowledged it graciously,” government officials said in the official release.
Government said it had already moved toward a Framework Agreement with GLF Group/ Royal Construction but none of “time spent negotiating with DECCO has been wasted” as the project could still be started and completed in the same time frame as originally proposed, official claimed.
GLF/Royal Construction have apparently committed to the same terms and conditions as thosenegotiated with DECCO but the new firm has agreed to a maximum lease period of thirty years for the residual upland.
“It is our intention to complete the main agreement within sixty to ninety days, which will allow us to start the project in the first quarter of 2011,” officials said. “It has always been the government’s stated commitment to get this project at a cost that is affordable and acceptable to the people of the Cayman Islands and by reaching an agreement with GLF/ Royal Construction, who were the second place bidder, we are well on our way to accomplishing that.”
Stefan Baraud, chairman of the Port Authority, who told CNS eight days ago that Dart were still in the game, said the port remained committed to realising an improved experience for our cruise ship visitors and this includes the berthing facility. “DECCO’s commitment to the country and willingness to make completed work available to us as we go forward will go a long way to making this much needed infrastructure improvement a reality sooner, rather than later,” he said in the official statement.
There were no details revealed about the financing of the project, which had been one of the key reasons why government had originally expressed a preference for Dart as it was one of the few bidders that would be able to self finance the project.
CNS contacted Dart for comments on the collapse of the negotiations and how much they had invested in the preliminary works, but the company said it had nothing further to add to what had been said in the official statement by the company’s CEO Cameron Graham. "DECCO is committed to helping the country realize cruise berthing facilities and will work with the Port Authority and government to assist.”
Government said it had a high level of mutual respect for the DECCO team but it, the Port Authority and the developer had agreed that it was the best option under the current circumstances to conclude the negotiations.
"The Cayman Islands government is committed to cruise tourism, and although we are disappointed that we could not reach mutually agreeable terms with DECCO, we sincerely appreciate the efforts and investment DECCO has extended towards the national goal of improving cruise berthing facilities," said Cline Glidden, MLA and the project lead on the cruise berthing project. “It is has always been the government’s main goal to ensure that the agreement with the port developer would be in the best interest of the Caymanian people.”
GLF is an international marine construction company that is entering into a joint venture with Royal Construction, a local firm which reportedly worked on the new George Town Library building.
Miller calls for ‘human shield’
(CNS): The independent member for North Side has warned that the people of North Side, East End and Bodden Town may have to form a “human shield” to protect their districts from the threat of the commercial seaport proposed by Joseph Imparato that has received government backing. Speaking at a meeting in his district on Tuesday night, Ezzard Miller said that while he and his fellow legislator and member for East End, Arden McLean, were doing all they could to fight the proposal, they needed the backing of the people to prevent it from happening and save their districts. He warned that once government commits itself to the project it will be very difficult for the MLAs to prevent it from happening and it would need a strong public outcry.
“We can’t do this alone,” Miller told the crowd that had gathered at the civic centre. “If we can’t get the governor to stop it, we will go to London to try and stop it, but once it passes into law we can’t stop it.”
Miller called on the people to be ready to go to George Town and demonstrate on the stairs of the Legislative Assembly and close George Town down if necessary to get the message out. Warning that the premier already seemed fully committed to the project, Miller said real action would be required to stop it from going ahead. “We may need to put up a human shield to stop this,” Miller said.
During the meeting, which was well attended, Miller, who was joined by McLean, listed the many issues he had with the proposal to construct a commercial seaport in High Rock that included home cruise porting, transhipment and oil and gas storage, among other things. As well as the environmental hazards, the North Side representative pointed out that the developer did not have a proper business plan and, more importantly, no commitments from any shipping or cruise lines to use the port. He dismissed Imparato’s claims that if he built the port, people would come.
Miller listed a catalogue of problems with the proposal and trashed the latest reports from Deloitte, stating that the figures were unrealistic. He said most of the information being put out by the developer was hype and the figures were plucked from thin air. He also pointed to the absence of key information.
“The glaring omission from all the propaganda is the missing statistics about the current port,” he added. With no assessments about the current George Town cargo facility, which he believed was some forty years away from reaching its capacity as it is now, Miller said he was unable to understand the need to move the port. He also noted the existing cargo facility was earmarked to be improved during the cruise berthing development and it was evident the country did not need a new cargo dock in East End.
Miller further revealed that Imparato proposed to develop an oil pipeline from his port to George Town so he could move the oil storage tanks from South Sound, which was gaining support from some people living in that neighbourhood. Warning of the obvious environmental disaster, Miller also pointed to the very real dangers inherent in such a proposal. However, as CUC is in George Town, if the oil loading dock was moved to East End it had to get back to the capital somehow.
This was just once example, the MLA said, of the obvious problems with so much of the proposal and that people had to use their common sense. The real motivation, Miller stated, was simple: it was to quarry the fill that he was currently prevented from accessing on the land he owned. “I can’t believe anything in these proposals is real except the quarrying,” he said. Depending on the use of the fill, Miller said the developer stood to gain more than $300 million in profit from selling a chunk of the Cayman Islands overseas.
Miller implored the people of the Cayman Islands not to take the information the developer was circulating at face value and to drill down and ask questions about all of his claims, as he said they would soon discover none of them made any commercial sense.
Arden McLean, who is spearheading the opposition to the project as it will be situated in the heart of his district, said that while the issues was physically about East Enders, North Siders and Bodden Towners, it was really about the whole country and it was not a case of “not in my back yard”.
He noted that this was the first time that politicians were taking up against a development because they recognised it was not a positive project and because they genuinely believe it would be to the detriment of the Cayman Islands and all of its people.
“We don’t have his money to campaign but we have you,” the opposition politician said as he called on the public countrywide to get behind the campaign and stop the project. McLean said that the petition would be distributed islandwide for everyone to sign, as well as registered voters. He said they were aiming for thousands of signatures to show government the strength of feeling against the proposal, which he knew was out there, he said.
On the launch of the petition on Saturday morning, the MLAs collected over 200 signatures and more people have signed on-line. People at the meeting were also signing on Tuesday evening and agreed to take sheets away with them to circulate. Many people at the meeting pledged their support for the politicians in their campaign, including 89-year-old former sea captain Ashton Smith, who warned the proposal was foolhardy and dangerous.
A number of audience members spoke about the underlying and simmering unrest in the country at present and warned that the opposition to the seaport was not the only thing that may drive people to civil disobedience.
Sign the on line petition here
Teen tried for armed robbery
(CNS): Seventeen-year-old Elmer Wright faced six serious charges on Tuesday morning when his trial for armed robbery and attempted murder of a police officer opened in theGrand Court. The teen is accused of being part of a gang of four masked men that robbed Mostyns Esso gas station in Bodden Town in June this year. Wright is also accused of shooting at the police as he attempted to flee. The teenager appeared in the dock alone — the only man police have charged in connection with the robbery — as the crown reeled off the evidence against him. Opening the case for the prosecution, Cheryl Richards QC, the solicitor general, said the crown had eye witness, circumstantial and forensic evidence linking the teenager to the crime. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)
(CNS): Seventeen-year-old Elmer Wright faced six serious charges on Tuesday morning when his trial for armed robbery and attempted murder of a police officer opened in the Grand Court. The teen is accused of being part of a gang of four masked men that robbed Mostyns Esso gas station in Bodden Town in June this year. Wright is also accused of shooting at the police as he attempted to flee. The teenager appeared in the dock alone — the only man police have charged in connection with therobbery — as the crown reeled off the evidence against him. Opening the case for the prosecution, Cheryl Richards QC, the solicitor general, said the crown had eye witness, circumstantial and forensic evidence linking the teenager to the crime. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)
Richards listed a catalogue of evidence against the young man, including DNA and gunshot residue linking Wright to the shotgun that was found where he was arrested, used to shoot at the police and in the commission of the robbery. The QC described the night’s events, in which she said the defendant, who was only 16 at the time, along with three other men robbed the gas station of around $1,000 with the use of shotguns before escaping towards George Town in a getaway car, which was chased by a passing police patrol unit.
The robbers turned into Northward Road, where they all got out of the car and three of them ran behind a house. The defendant, however, reportedly lingered behind. He loaded his shotgun and turned and fired at the unarmed police in the patrol car, which had pulled up behind the robbers.
The teen then took flight and was arrested a short while later by one of the USG units set up in the wake of the robbery on the corner of Beach Bay Road and Shamrock Road. He was found to have several hundred dollars on him and was wearing similar clothes to those described by the robbery victims, which were later found to have gunshot residue on them. A shotgun was also found very close by to the arrest, which later proved to have Wright’s DNA on it. The crown also revealed that swabs taken from the teen’s hands that evening tested positive for gunshot residue.
The first witnesses called by the crown to support its case were the two members of staff on duty at the gas station that night during the robbery. Describing the ordeal when three of the robbers carrying shotguns burst into the store, the cashier said she was very frightened.
“I was really scared as the gun was pointed on me,” the witness said. The cashier explained that there were several customers in the store at the time and the robbers told everyone to get down, hitting one in the face with the butt of his rifle. She said one robber told her to give him the money and she said she pressed the panic button as he opened the register, in which she said there was around $1,000. The robber then said, “Where’s the rest of the money?” but seconds later one of the other robbers spotted the police patrol car outside and shouted, “Police, police!” and all three men fled.
The witness gave a description of the men, what they were wearing and said they all spoke with Caymanian accents.
Meanwhile, the gas attend outside by the pumps told how the fourth robber had pointed the gun at him outside the store but said he had managed to crouch down behind a car outside the gas station and flag down the passing police patrol car and indicate he needed help.
Officer Christopher Samuels described how he and Officer Wendy Parchment were patrolling when they saw the gas attendant flagging them down at the station.
The officer explained how, as they pulled on to the forecourt, they soon realised a robbery was going on and that they called 911 and alerted other units, as the robbers came out of the store and got in the getaway car. Samuels said he then pursued the car in the direction of George Town using the sirens and blue lights. He described the high speed chase, dodging and weaving traffic, until the robbers turned into Northward Road and parked on a lot in front of a house. There they abandoned the car and ran down the right hand side of the property, all except one, who turned to face the police vehicle.
Samuels said he did not realise what the man was doing until he raised the shotgun and fired it at him. For a second or two the officer believed he had been hit. “I was fearful. I thought I was shot and started to pat myself down tosee where I was shot, expecting to find blood,” he recalled. The officer said he was able to compose himself and put the car in reverse to pull away from the danger area.
The judge alone trial before Justice Smith continues tomorrow in Grand Court One and is expected to last five days.