A police officer is being accused of failing in his duties as it relates to the detention of a Scotland Yard cop who was denied bail and remanded yesterday; but instead of taking the accused behind bars, a local cop drove him to a supermarket, allowed him to buy food and walk around unescorted.
Video and photograph evidence appear to support the complaints about the matter which was reported to OBSERVER media and the police.
As a result, Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney has ordered an investigation into the matter.
“I haven’t seen the video, we are going to investigate the matter but I heard about it. I heard and immediately launched an investigation into the matter,” Rodney said.
As if there wasn’t enough public outcry already over the fact that the U.K. cop extradited for rape would be held at the former U.S. Naval base as opposed to Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP), the latest development has caused even further outrage.
In one of the videos which OBSERVER media reviewed, the accused Scotland Yard officer is seen walking out of Epicurean Supermarket. The video was shot some time after 11 a.m. which would have been shortly after Magistrate Ngaio Emanuel denied him bail and ordered him remanded to the base.
The video shows that as he emerges from the business place, he appears to be looking around for the officer who was supposed to be escorting him.
The officer joins him a few seconds later and the two men walk to a vehicle, smiling and talking; each had what appeared to be food items and packages in their hands.
Usually, when inmates have requests for food or any other item, they are not taken from their cells, but their lawyers, relatives or the police get the items and take them back to where the person is being held in custody.
The British cop who is accused of raping a 19-year-old woman in Antigua while he was on vacation here, was denied bail for several reasons, but the main three were because he allegedly committed the crime and immediately left the state and did not return voluntarily to face the allegations; he has no ties in Antigua and given the seriousness of the allegations and the probability that he could abscond.
These were among the reasons the adjudicator in the All Saints Magistrate’s Court gave when she told the accused and his lawyer John Fuller, bail was being denied.
The name of the accused cannot be published since this is prohibited under the Sexual Offences Act. It was just about three weeks ago the U.K. Court granted the extradition request, but this was after it rejected the first extradition application made in 2016.
The change in the ruling came only after local authorities gave assurance that the British accused would not be held at Her Majesty’s Prison in Antigua in degrading, inhumane conditions that breach his human rights.
Residents have contended that the accused ought to go to HMP because locals and other accused have no option but to be remanded or serve their time there.
It is alleged that on May 23, 2016, the U.K. law official raped the young woman in Antigua after befriending her and spiking her drink during an outing in Falmouth.
Then, he left the state while local police looked for him. It was he who raised the issue of Antigua’s prison conditions when he challenged his extradition.