Growing pains? Bah!
We’ve had much ballyhooing from this gov’t, promise after promise that the pain from the ever increasing forfeiture of our hard earned monies, from the successive & prolonged blackouts we’ve endured only to be told these are “growing pains”???

We’ve suffered from what they now call “growing pains” going on for 5 years.

Sounds like a stone baby to me, all hope and promise but no satisfaction for any of us doing the be-labouring, the waiting-in the dark!

So if Mr Monroe, his prosecutors & his PD are doing that demanded by Bahamian law concerning their sworn duty “to support and protect witnesses and victims”, not jeopardize the “life, safety and well being of victims and witnesses..and…to use good judgment” as to any impending dangers, then why would none of them act proactively act to protect their witnesses?

Surely they don’t want us to think they care nothing about the ongoing intimidation and murderous efforts tanking their prosecutions.

One can surmise that just as in the cases being adjudicated from the previous arrests of prominent members of our military and judiciary, the “accommodations” offered in his plea deal such as “less than the minimum ten year sentence” (and not the max of a life term), will make this co-operating criminal join his fellows in telling a informative & fascinating tale!

My father a barrister & solicitor of some 55 years is whispering in my ear from the grave...
“Why would any competent fellow of my profession allow his client to send a ‘pre-signed’ lease to a prospective tenant? Wouldn’t this deny him any control over the terms stated therein to be fulfilled by said tenant?
What protects the landlord if his tenant alters the terms of the lease for which he’s already signed?”

As an attorney licensed to practice in The Bahamas, indeed as the MOJ Mr Munroe knows full well that the protection of witnesses & victims lies within his own ministry.

He knows that the Crown, the courts and the police have an obligation codified in The Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Act of 2011 precisely for victim support and witness protection as the core of the administration of justice. An Act was worded to protect victims and witnesses like Mr McPhee because these persons were so routinely murdered and intimidated as to render justice moot in The Bahamas.

And yet Mr Munroe declares this obligation lies with such witnesses and victims to provide the evidence of their endangerment??

“Court Justice Officers (CJOs) and the police have a duty to provide protection for
witnesses and victims”…and not “to jeopardize the life, safety, freedom and well being of these and other co-operating persons”
That “the best protection is the awareness of potential risks of harm, to exercise good judgment and caution in all their interactions (with these) prior to their testimony.”

This includes providing for their anonymity from the accused and their attorneys such as redacting documents of “their names, addresses and testimony…up to 24 hours prior to testimony for qualifying criminal cases”.

So Mr Munroe would you care to amend your statement to include a commitment to justice?

It always amazes me that the courts (and parents) treat children so badly.
And although the testimony from this child indicates she does not trust her Mum to stand up for her, that she feared her Mother would allow her abuser to beat her and so invite more sexual abuse, no one seems to appreciate the enormous implications for this child’s quality of life.
Nor the steadfastness and courage it takes to undergo such harrowing experiences, first by her abuser, then police and now this court.

I’m a grown woman, it took me years to acknowledge my husband’s abuse and as I feared, despite all evidence even my own children refused this acknowledgment.

My God. How many more people have to die before this country has the kind of governance that doesn’t work so hard at killing its own citizens?

Those of us who attempt to follow the precepts of our faith in God realize that forgiveness is one of the toughest tasks we must accept if we’re to live in peace.

And unfortunately we’ve all experienced the distasteful interactions, the too often horrific results of those amongst us who’ve not experienced the adult guidance that favours reason over emotion, the application of accountability for one’s actions from their parents, their teachers and coaches, our so called justice system.

Forgiveness without accountability might have to be enough for an aggrieved party but for society?
It’s a ticking bomb, it’s an abdication of our responsibility to live not as humans, but as animals.

Ok…so we learned all about the merits of organ donation.
Where’s the part the matches the headline, ie. why was this man acquitted??

So we must weigh the rights of convicted sex offenders against the innocent and most vulnerable members of our communities?

This shouldn’t take long!