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| James Smith |
Cayman Juice Comment: Ah, it never ends. Probes and investigations, reports, and accusations. Yet Caymanians never really find out the details of the corruption on the police force. Even worse no one stands trial for the corruption. They either get suspended with pay, or sent packing back to England.
By Tad Stoner
Top officials will soon be launching a second phase of an investigation into allegations of corruption, focusing specifically within the Cayman Islands Police Service, Acting Commissioner James Smith has said.
Named ‘Operation Cealt’, a Celtic word meaning ‘justice’, the new probe will focus on “a small number of allegations”, which nonetheless, he said, went beyond simple internal or administrative problems.
”If they were administrative I would not take such a serious view,” Mr Smith said at a media briefing on Tuesday afternoon, “but I do. These are serious allegations of criminal conduct. They are untested, however, and I want to be very careful. They require laborious investigation and I need to study them.
“Let me just say I am very proud of the people that have come forward, and it’s time to prove or disprove [the accusations]. Matters of corruption are most difficult to prove and it needs time, but when severe allegations are made, I need to get to the bottom.”
He indicated he was identifying trustworthy officers to move the probe forward.
“I have begun an inspection of the intelligence division so they can handle sensitive information and protect those who have come forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, officials have yet to make a decision as to who will lead that new probe.
The new investigation will be entirely separate from Operation Tempura, the almost 18-month-long inquiry into an unauthorised entry into offices at Cayman Net News by two of its employees in the summer of 2007, the possible complicity of top police commanders in the event and the 24 September arrest of Grand Court Judge Alexander Henderson.
Mr Smith told reporters on Tuesday that he was seeking individuals and groups in both Europe and Western Australia who could take charge of the new probe.
“The [appointment] decision will be made by me, based on a whole host of things,” Mr Smith said. “We are looking for the right people with the right skills at the right time for the right price. I’ve looked across Europe for an alternative service provider that can carry the investigation forward.
“I have my own confidential sources and know of other companies and people capable of this kind of work. I know a group in Western Australia with this kind of experience. I am trying to stay within jurisdictions that have English law.”
While he declined explicitly to rule out Senior Investigating Officer of Operation Tempura, Martin Bridger, for the post, he acknowledged that pressure from elected Ministers and the public had thrown the officer’s future into doubt. On 3 February, Cabinet formally declined to fund any further investigations headed by Mr Bridger, saying his conduct in the Henderson affair had tarnished his credibility.
“Call it what you want to, I will make the judgement on the chief investigator. The investigation should be headed by someone appropriate, capable of carrying on an inquiry and supported by skilled investigators. [The probe] will be apart from [independent of] the RCIP, but still include my senior staff.”
Mr Bridger, he said, would remain on the island: “He’ll finish up Operation Tempura, continuing the job he was employed to do.”
He left the door open, however, to Mr Bridger, a former colleague, and appeared to set aside at least some of the blanket criticism leveled at Operation Tempura and its team of investigators by Judge Sir Peter Cresswell, who overturned Mr Henderson’s search and arrest in two judicial reviews late last year.
“Of course he could,” Mr Smith said, asked if SIO Bridger might be appointed to head Operation Cealt. “People seem to forget the professionalism displayed up until the Henderson case. Martin Bridger and his team have done some extremely good work. If he were guilty of misconduct, it would be a serious matter. Mistakes were made, but I don’t like punishing people for mistakes.
“People learn by what they have done, and while some things could have been done differently, we are doing debriefings so people understand. The Cresswell decision was damning and there is no way around that, but we learn from these events,” he said. “We want to make sure we don’t repeat, going forward, some of these things.”
A report on Operation Tempura has been passed to HE, the Governor Stuart Jack, but, calling it “highly confidential and extremely sensitive”, Mr Smith said he had not given it to Cabinet or MLAs, although, he said, Ministers had supported ongoing investigations.
He did not elaborate on when Operation Cealt might start or Operation Tempura end, suggesting they would run a natural course.
“The job of the Commissioner of Police is very complex, and no man, no Minister and no government shall tell an officer of the law what to do, who to arrest or to engage in any activity,” Mr Smith said.
“The Cabinet knows [that] and they respect that position. I don’t know how they will react until they get my reaction on what to do, who will do it and how long it is going to take,” he said.
