Accountability

Equal Before the Law?

Can we in Anguilla learn anything from this report on recent developments in the police service in the Falklands Islands?

Penguin News on the Falklands reported on Friday that fifteen months after being suspended from duty, former Chief Police Officer, David Morris, has at last been sentenced.

In court on Monday, he received a six month suspended prison sentence, suspended for one year, having been found guilty on November 9, 2006 of perverting the course of justice.

Mr Morris was found to have pressured Inspector Len McGill to terminate a police inquiry into an alleged assault by his son, Jason Morris. On the evening of the verdict, Mr Morris became ill and was admitted to hospital where he remained until his sentencing.

Senior Magistrate Clare Faulds read the judgment from Acting Senior Magistrate Patrick Curran QC in open court on Monday. In passing sentence Mr Curran said that Mr Morris’s time spent in hospital will be treated as time spent remanded in custody awaiting sentence. This would equate to a prison sentence of slightly more than three months.

In mitigation Defence Lawyer Keith Watson described the case as “tragic.” He said that two to five minutes of poor judgment had, in the short to medium term, “ruined a good man’s life, not to mention the devastation suffered by his wife and very close family.”

......ends...........

Or, is it true that never in our wildest imagination could such information ever become public knowledge in Anguilla, where miscreants are allowed to quietly retire?