A man is fighting for life after he was attacked in south east London.

Police were called at 9.43pm on Saturday, April 29, to Manor Road, Beckenham, following reports that a man had been attacked.

A short time later, officers were informed that a 20-year-old man had presented at hospital with head injuries and remains there in a critical condition, police said. His family is aware.

A 17-year-old male was arrested at the scene on suspicion of GBH.

He was taken into police custody and has been bailed pending further enquiries.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CrtYDjTo5rk/

Robert Brown was given a 26-year sentence in 2011. But he is due to be released in November, without parole or risk assessment. What does this case tell us about attitudes towards domestic homicides?

The facts are these. At 4pm on a Sunday, Halloween 2010, Robert Brown arrived at the Ascot house of his estranged wife, Joanna Simpson – a house that was the subject of a bitter legal battle, due for its final hearing in a week’s time.

Brown was returning their two children, nine and 10, after a half-term visit. They ran inside to the family room, leaving their parents in the hallway, where Brown took a hammer he’d packed in the children’s bag and bludgeoned Simpson repeatedly. (Their daughter said she heard “bang, bang, bang” as the blows fell.) There were injuries on Simpson’s hands and her arms where she’d defended herself, fractures and double fractures on her eyes and cheeks, her nose and skull. Brown then lifted her body into the back of his Volvo, covered her in plastic sheeting and returned to the house to disconnect the phone, remove the CCTV system, then collect the children. As they drove away, their son asked if Brown was “taking Mummy to hospital”. Instead, Brown dropped the children back at his home with his current partner, grabbed some items from the garage – duct tape, forensic overalls, plastic overshoes – and drove onwards to Windsor Great Park.

Here, he had already dug a deep grave to the precise dimensions of a large garden box. That box lay beneath the earth, lined with plastic sheeting to prevent seepage. Brown bent Simpson’s wrapped body into that box, fastened it and covered it with soil.

 

Given these facts, this true-life horror, it isn’t surprising that in May 2011, when Simpson’s family and friends gathered at Reading Crown Court for Brown’s trial, they expected a murder conviction and a life sentence. Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, who counted Simpson as her closest friend, was one of more than 20 who had come forward as witnesses, to speak for Simpson and present a picture of escalating abuse culminating in domestic homicide. “No matter how devastating it was, we thought, ‘Thank goodness there’s all this evidence. There’s no way he’ll get away with it’,” she says. Instead, Brown was found not guilty of murder and pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility. He is entitled to automatic release in November, without parole or any risk assessment.

Best friends … Simpson (left) with Hetti Barkworth-Nanton.

Brown’s trial is just one example of the very low status ascribed to domestic homicides by our criminal justice system – in the words of leading defence barrister Clare Wade KC, “They’re right at the bottom of the pile.” In 2021, Wade was commissioned to conduct an independent review of domestic homicide sentences – which in this case means murders or manslaughter committed by current or previous partners. They overwhelmingly involve men killing women. In the Home Office Homicide Index 2011-2020, male perpetrators accounted for 87% of killings in this category.

Ellie Gould. Photograph: Wiltshire Police/PA

 

The review was commissioned partly in response to a campaign by two bereaved families. Poppy Devey Waterhouse, 24, sustained more than 100 injuries in a slow, brutal attack by her ex-partner Joe Atkinson. He was sentenced to life for murder, with a minimum term of 15 years, 310 days. Ellie Gould, 17, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Thomas Griffiths. He strangled her, then stabbed her at least 13 times – his sentence life with a minimum term of 12 years and six months. For the victim’s families, the injustice was clear. If these murders had taken place outside the victim’s homes, the sentences could have been 10 years longer, as there are higher penalties if a killer takes a knife to the scene rather than lifts one from the kitchen drawer. And women are far more likely to be killed at home. Between 2017 and 2019, three-quarters of female victims in England and Wales were murdered at home – for male victims, it was less than half.

At present, our murder sentences stem from Section 21 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. “It’s frozen in the 2000s, a very outdated bit of law,” says Wade. There’s the full-life tariff for cases of “exceptionally high seriousness” such as terrorism, multiple killings or some sadistically or sexually motivated crimes. Next comes the 30-year tariff for murders of “particularly high seriousness”, including “murder for gain”, murder involving a firearm, the murder of a police officer or one motivated by hate against a “protected characteristic” (being a woman isn’t one of them). The 25-year tariff was added in 2009 due to rising concerns around knife crime, and covers murders where a knife or other weapon has been taken to the scene. And then there’s the 15-year tariff for all the rest – the “normal murders”. (All these sentences can be increased or reduced by aggravating and mitigating factors.)We know much more about domestic homicides than we did in the 2000s. We know about the way coercive control works

Clare Wade KC

The two women killed every week in the UK usually fall under “normal murders”, the lowest level of seriousness. They have been treated like one-off random killings in “volatile relationships”, homicides sprung from an affair or jealous rage, a messy divorce or petty row. (See Thomas McCann, who murdered and dismembered his wife Yvonne because she forgot to freeze a bag of chips. In March 2021, he was sentenced to life, with a minimum term of 12 years 182 days.) “We know much more about domestic homicides than we did in the 2000s,” says Wade. “We now know about the way coercive control works. These killings are not ‘situational’. We are not talking about a ‘relationship gone wrong’. In many of these, there is a pathological need to control the other party. If you look at the history, you will see a pattern, a template, where the inevitable concomitant of extreme coercive control is killing.” Those behaviour patterns will be evident in a perpetrator’s previous relationships and in future ones too. “Unfortunately, to a large extent in sentencing and murder law, that’s still not understood,” says Wade.

To Barkworth-Nanton, who attended all of Robert Brown’s trial, the attitude that this was a low-status case, a “relationship gone wrong”, was evident from the start. Even though Brown had taken a weapon to the scene – which could elevate it to a higher sentence – the fact that he’d used it to kill his estranged wife in her home during a stressful divorce somehow conspired to create a lesser level of scrutiny. “We were told it would last six to eight weeks,” says Barkworth-Nanton. “It took eight days. The 20-plus witnesses who knew Jo and the history of that relationship were cut right back to two.”

Joanna Yeates. Photograph: Rex Features

The trial for the murder of Joanna Yeates took place just a few months later – Yeates, 25, had gone missing in Bristol after a night out and been murdered by someone she didn’t know. “That trial was much longer; they took the jury to the grass verge where her body was dumped. They didn’t cut any corners – and quite rightly,” says Barkworth-Nanton. “Brown’s jury should have been taken to Jo’s house and seen where the children had been when their mother was killed. They should have seen how much Jo had tried to protect herself – the cameras, the lights, the alarms – and they categorically should have been taken to the place he buried Jo. It was a key part of the whole thing.”

Simpson had married Brown, a BA pilot, in February 1999, after a whirlwind romance. It had been unhappy from the start – she had called her mum from her honeymoon saying she’d made a “terrible mistake” as Brown was so rude to hotel staff. Within weeks, though, she was pregnant and committed to making it work.

Many friends, including Barkworth-Nanton, had witnessed Brown criticising Simpson – her cooking, her parenting. “He was constantly putting her down,” she says. “He was never pleasant to be around.” One friend had reported him to police for cycling towards her and her children at speed, only veering away at the last second. He monitored Simpson’s movements when he was away on flights, using the burglar alarm to check what time she got home or went to bed. In July 2007, the marriage ended and the following month, Simpson applied for a non-molestation injunction against him. Her signed statement describes Brown’s increasingly frightening behaviour as the marriage was breaking down. One time, he had called from Hong Kong and told Simpson he was having “dark thoughts”. Another time, he had taken “a very large carving knife” from the drawer and held it to her chest, gripping the back of her neck with his other hand.

Simpson with her daughter.

 

Brown had given an undertaking to stay away from the house for six months, which was then extended by another six. In the months after, the CCTV Simpson had had fitted stopped working because the cables were cut. The security lights stopped working as those cables were cut too. As part of the divorce proceedings, Brown supplied a list of credit card transactions that revealed the purchase of spy equipment. When Simpson’s solicitors asked what this was for, Brown admitted that he’d bought a tracking device to put on his wife’s car. For three years, their divorce dragged on, ostensibly over the family home – which Simpson had bought as a wreck with trees growing through the ceiling and renovated four years before meeting Brown. It seemed likely that she would win the case. “I spoke to Jo an hour before she was killed and she was really down,” says Barkworth-Nanton. “Even though the divorce hearing was a week away, she felt it wasn’t going to end there. She was sure he’d find something else, another battle, like custody of the children.”

The jury learned almost none of this. The night before she was killed, Simpson was working on her divorce statement. (“I consider him to be controlling, intimidating and a bully,” she wrote.) “We begged the prosecution barrister to bring it into court – it was her talking, it was the whole history of the marriage,” says Barkworth-Nanton. The barrister declined. His response, she says, was, “Trivia, trivia, trivia!”

Instead, a great chunk of the trial was taken up by Brown’s own account. “He was charming, he cried, he got the jury’s sympathy,” says Barkworth-Nanton. “He was the airline pilot trusted with the safety of hundreds of passengers. If he’d been able to wear his uniform, he would have. The whole stance of his evidence was that Jo was a rich bitch who had led him to do this.”

Brown claimed that Simpson had “railroaded” him into marriage, that with Simpson, “everything he did was wrong”, Barkworth-Nanton continues. “He said Jo had an affair – which wasn’t true – and now she was hiding money and taking him to the cleaners. He even said, ‘I knew there was a problem in my marriage when I didn’t get my usual birthday present.’ By that he meant a blowjob. There were so many times when he was talking that I was just shaking my head – yet he was never challenged. We asked the prosecution why. He replied that he was there to win a murder conviction for Joanna, ‘not a popularity contest’.”

The prosecuting barrister has since been appointed as a judge. Approached by the Guardian, a representative of the courts and tribunals judiciary said: “Judges are never able to comment on cases they have been involved in, whether this is prior to their judicial career or heard as a judge.”

 

In court, Brown claimed that the stress of the divorce combined with other factors, including his new partner’s miscarriage, caused him to suffer an “adjustment disorder” – an emotional disturbance that interfered with normal functioning. This diminished responsibility for what he did. One psychiatrist backed him up; another said this was a “minor form of disorder”, very rarely linked to violence, and was not in keeping with such acts as dismantling the CCTV straight after the killing. “The jury had to decide which psychiatrist to believe,” says Barkworth-Nanton. “That’s bonkers.”

They chose to side with Brown, whose story they’d heard in such detail. “After the verdict, I can remember looking down and feeling like there was a big dark hole opening up that I was falling into,” says Barkworth-Nanton. At sentencing, the judge himself seemed to express doubts. “An adjustment disorder,” he said, “is a mild disturbance which rarely leads to outbursts of violence. In your case, it appears to have disappeared almost immediately after killing your wife.” He sentenced Brown to 26 years – but since this was for manslaughter, not murder, that sentence is “determinate”, rather than the minimum term that might accompany a life sentence. For Brown, this means that if he commits no further crimes, he can be automatically released halfway through with no risk assessment.The jury had to decide which psychiatrist to believe. That’s bonkers

Hetti Barkworth-Nanton

At the heart of this trial was a chasm where an understanding of domestic abuse and coercive control should have been. Barkworth-Nanton has spent the intervening years campaigning on these issues and is now chair of the domestic abuse charity Refuge (although she is not speaking on behalf of Refuge here). She is not convinced there has been much improvement, despite the fact that coercive control became a criminal offence in 2015, four years after Brown’s trial. “These ‘partial defences’ of diminished responsibility were introduced in the 1950s when we needed a defence to ensure that people who weren’t evil were not sentenced to death,” she says. “I’m of the view that they are now abused by men who kill their wives. They are effectively saying, ‘she drove me to it’ in various guises – and then it becomes a trial of the victim.” Partial defences are also used when men claim a partner died during “sex gone wrong”.

Clare Wade’s Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review was published in March. It has recommended training for all lawyers and judges around coercive control. It recommends that in cases where coercive control was exercised by someone who went on to commit domestic homicide, it should be a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing. In addition, if the homicide took place when the relationship was ending, if it involved strangulation or “overkill” (excessive or gratuitous violence, beyond that necessary to kill) these should be aggravating factors too.Women kill men for different reasons. Usually because they’re in despair and to be safe

Clare Wade KC

 

Importantly, the review also states that when the killing was committed by a victim of coercive control – when someone kills the partner who was abusing them – it should be a mitigating factor. “Women kill men for different reasons,” says Wade, “usually to resist control, because they’re in despair and to be safe.”

In response, the government has agreed to make overkill and coercive control statutory aggravating factors – but, to Wade’s alarm, not to make coercive control a mitigating one for victims driven to kill their abuser.

For Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, it’s a start. “It’s certainly not ‘job done’, and it’s dangerous to assume so,” she says. She urges the creation of an automatic 25-year tariff for domestic homicides – with an explicit exclusion for victims of domestic abuse and violence.

Meanwhile, she is lobbying with Simpson’s family to prevent Brown’s release in six months, through the Joanna Simpson Foundation. They are pinning their hopes on new legislation, section 132 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (2022), which gives the Secretary of State for Justice the power to stop the release of someone with a determinate sentence if there is strong evidence that they are a danger to the public. (Barkworth-Nanton wants all of those convicted of domestic homicide to face a similar review before release.) “The reason we’re campaigning is not because we want ‘justice for Jo’ – we’ll never get that,” Barkworth-Nanton says. “It’s not because we’re angry and think it’s ‘not fair’. It’s purely because he’s a danger.” Simpson’s family fear Brown and they fear for any of his future partners. “We shouldn’t be in a situation where we need to campaign actively in public in order to keep people safe.”

In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via befrienders.org

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/03/the-killing-of-joanna-simpson-she-was-bludgeoned-and-buried-by-her-husband-why-is-he-being-set-free

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LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Police arrested a man outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday for throwing what they believe were shotgun cartridges and officers also carried out a controlled explosion in the area, days before King Charles' coronation ceremony.

Police said the man had approached Buckingham Palace gates and thrown items, suspected to be shotgun cartridges, into the palace grounds before being detained by officers at around 1800 GMT.Security forces stand guard after British police arrested a man outside Buckingham Palace for throwing what they believe were shotgun cartridges, in London, Britain May 2, 2023. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/london-police-arrest-man-outside-buckingham-palace-2023-05-02/

Phoenix man sentenced to 16 years after crash that killed 3 teens in Glendale

 

A Phoenix man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for running a red light in 2021 and causing a car crash that killed three teenagers in Glendale and left behind a two-year trail of grief for all involved.

Carlos Daniel Gonzalez Jr., 24, was sentenced for the manslaughter of Ariyanna Parsad, 18, Kiyvon Martin, 18, and Jazmine Marquez, 19, by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Rueter.

Gonzalez signed off on a plea agreement last month, and Rueter handed him 16 years for each manslaughter count. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

Gonzalez's case revived questions about the Valley's chronic problem with red-light running, renewed questions about how to effectively enforce impaired driving in the wake of legalized marijuana, and raised questions about how closely prosecutors consult with victims' families.

The chairs in Rueter's courtroom on Friday were filled on both sides, with just over 30 family and friends showing up for the three victims' families as well as for Gonzalez. Enlarged pictures of the victims were on display.

In August 2021, Gonzalez was driving over twice the speed limit and ran a red light when he struck Parsad's car at 83rd Avenue and Bethany Home Road in Glendale. Marquez was pronounced dead when officers arrived, while Parsad and Martin later died of their injuries. Parsad's new husky puppy, Nina, who was in the car with the teenagers, was found dead in the front seat  Gonzalez was later found to have THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana, in his blood, but it did not play a role in the crash, according to law enforcement.

Over the past five years, the intersection of 83rd Avenue and Bethany Home Road has seen two other fatal crashes, according to an email from Sgt. Randy Stewart, public information officer for the Glendale Police Department. The department has also issued five citations for failure to stop at a red light in the same timeframe.Throughout Glendale, there have been 172 fatal collisions between 2018 and 2022. In 2023, there have been 13 fatal collisions as of April 28, on pace with last year.

Red-light crash kills 3 teenagers in 2021

Just after midnight on Aug. 25, 2021, Parsad was driving her Toyota car with her boyfriend Martin and her new puppy Nina in the front seat, and Marquez in the back seat. They were heading north on 83rd Avenue after the signal light had been green for at least five seconds, according to surveillance video.Gonzalez, in his Tesla, was on his way to his sister's house to celebrate his late brother's birthday. He was driving approximately 86 mph westbound on Bethany Home Road. The posted speed limit there is 40 mph. Despite the signal light being red for several seconds for him, Gonzalez braked nearly three seconds before the crash, according to data from the Tesla, but decided to accelerate and drive through the light, causing him to hit Parsad's car.

The collision caused Parsad's car to roll over and hit the signal light pole so hard that the camera which recorded the crash moved and was no longer aimed at the intersection. Marquez was ejected from the car and pronounced dead when officers arrived.

Parsad and Martin were in the car with injuries and were taken to Abrazo West Trauma Center. Gonzalez was also transferred to the center for serious injuries.

Parsad died the same day while being treated at the hospital. Martin was conscious and told police that Parsad was his girlfriend and that he did not know Marquez's name. He died in the hospital on Sept. 2, eight days after the collision.

When officers questioned Gonzalez at the hospital, he told officers he had not been drinking, but said he had a medical marijuana card and had smoked one or two days before. A routine toxicology test from the hospital found that THC was present in Gonzalez's blood.

Officers issued a warrant and months later a blood test from the Department of Public Safety crime lab found that Gonzalez had a THC concentration of 11 nanograms per milliliter of blood, with a margin of error of 2 nanograms at the time of the incident.

Arizona does not have a specific limit of THC used to charge drivers with impairment as it does for alcohol, but Colorado and Washington do: 5 ng/ml there.

It was not until those results were released that Gonzalez was arrested. However, at Friday's sentencing, Judge Reuter said law enforcement reported that Gonzalez was not impaired despite the level of THC in his blood. Gonzalez turned himself in to Glendale police on Dec. 29, 2021.P

Police have identified the man shot and killed at Silver Sands, Christ Church this morning.

He is Jamal Clarke, 30, of Bournes Land, Sayers Court, Silver Sands, Christ Church.

A police statement said officers at the Oistins Police Station received a report around 8:20 a.m. from a male who said that his brother was shot about his body, whilst along the roadway at Silver Sands.

Clarke was transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in a private motor vehicle but was subsequently pronounced dead on arrival.

The Barbados Police Service is appealing to anyone who can provide any information about the incident to contact Police emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIPS (8477), the Oistins Police Station at 418-2612 or any Police Station.

Thieves have once again targeted Ottos Comprehensive Secondary, resulting in the early closure of classes for the day.

This is the third time that the school has been hit by burglars since September of last year. According to Principal Foster Roberts, the thieves broke into the cafeteria and the staff room. They pried off the door knobs of both doors, making one of them unusable for the time being. The thieves reportedly stole speakers that were used by teachers during classes.

Roberts believes that the break-in occurred when there were no security guards present on the school's property.

Gauteng police arrested more than 1700 suspects over the long weekend and recovered 65 unlicensed firearms.

Suspects were arrested during operations and routine police stop and search in various parts of the province.

The perpetrators were found to have committed serious and violent crimes such as murder, attempted murder, robbery, car hijacking, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, rape, fraud, and theft. Diligent and intelligent police observation during routine patrols led to the discovery of most firearms.

Police believe these are the firearms that are used during the commission of serious and violent crimes in the province.

Two suspects, believed to be part of a drug syndicate, were arrested on Saturday, 29 April 2023 for dealing in drugs at the University of Limpopo in Mankweng.

Police discovered 26 balls of Heroin concealed inside the motor vehicle with an estimated street value of R50 000-00.

In Thabampshe village in Masemola policing area, a 55-year-old man was arrested in connection with the brutal murder of a 2-year-old boy on Sunday, 30 April 2023.

The suspect allegedly started a fight with his niece and smashed the boy's head against the floor where he succumbed to the injuries.

The Barbados Police Service is seeking the public’s help to locate Donnell Carl Smart who is wanted for questioning in connection with serious criminal matters.

Smart, whose last known addresses are Harpers Land, Upper Clapham, St. Michael and Block 3B Haynesville, St. James is approximately five feet, seven inches tall. He has a brown complexion and a medium build. He has a round medium-shaped head, a pointed flat nose, thick lips and a scar in the middle of his forehead.

Smart is advised that he can present himself to the Narcotics Unit, Oistins Police Station, Oistins, Christ Church accompanied by an Attorney-at-Law of his choice.

Any person, who may know Smart’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Narcotics Unit, Oistins Police Station, at 418-2626/418-2631, Police Emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers at 1 800-8477 or the nearest police station.

Members of the public are also reminded that it is a serious offence to harbour or assist wanted persons. Any person caught committing this offence can be prosecuted.

https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/03/13/wanted-donnell-carl-smart/

Five people appeared in court on Thursday to face charges in connection with a $1.7 million marijuana seizure.

Brittany Diamond Maurissa Worrell-Lucombe, of Chapel Gap, Paynes Bay, St James is charged with importation, possession, possession with intent to supply and trafficking of $1 747 600 worth of the illegal substance.

The offences are alleged to have been committed on February 23.

Station Sergeant Crishna Williams made a submission to Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes that the charges be done indictably, which means that the 31-year-old student could not plead to the allegations before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court. 

Worrell-Lucombe, who is represented by attorneys Andrew Pilgrim KC and Martie Garnes must face a judge and jury before the High Court.

There was no objection to bail from the prosecutor and the accused secured the $100 000 sum with one surety. The bail came with the condition that she reports to the Holetown Police Station every Tuesday and Saturday before 1 p.m.

Separately charged is 68-year-old accountant Rodney Levi Wilkinson, of No. 6 Warrens Terrace, St Michael.

He is accused of committing acts preparatory to trafficking in cannabis on the same date as well as trafficking the illegal drugs. His charges are also indictable.

Wilkinson secured bail in the sum of $75 000 with one surety after Station Sergeant Williams had no objections.

As part of his bail conditions, he must report to the District ‘A’ Police Station every Monday and Friday before 10:30 a.m. 

He is represented by Garnes and Marlon Gordon.

The other three accused are Larry Anthony Kelvin Alleyne, a 45-year-old forklift driver of Briar Hall, Christ Church; Ramon Renaldo Chandler, a 33-year-old driver of Laynes Road, Paynes Bay, St James; and Terry Anderson Weekes, a 44-year-old resident of Goodland Main Road, St Michael.

They are jointly charged with knowingly handling the drugs intended for them or someone else for supply.

No pleas could be taken for the indictable count.

The men were also granted $75 000 each with one surety.

Alleyne, who is represented by attorney-at-law Arthur Holder, must report to the Oistins Police Station every Tuesday and Saturday by 1 p.m.; while Chandler, who has Angella Mitchell-Gittens as his lawyer, must report on the same two days and time but at the Holetown Police Station. Weekes, represented by Rashida Edwards, is to report to the Black Rock Police Station on the same days and by the same time.

All five accused will make their next appearance before the court on
August 30.

A 29-year-old man accused of chopping his uncle with a cutlass claimed that he was only defending himself in the incident that landed him before the court and his relative in hospital.

Stephen Daniel Forde, a resident of Lower Ifill Road, Flagstaff, St Michael is
accused of wounding Francis Forde on March 27, 2023, with intent to maim, disfigure or disable him or to do some serious bodily harm to him.

The accused could not plead to the indictable charge when it was read to him by Magistrate Alison Burke in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

In objecting to bail for Forde, Police Constable Ralph Rollock pointed to the nature and seriousness of the charge, noting that the accused’s uncle was still hospitalised although information was that his injuries were not life-threatening.

The prosecutor added that the alleged attack was “committed with a cutlass” and appeared to have been unprovoked.

He said although the accused had no previous convictions, there was a need to protect the complainant and society. The two parties, the prosecutor revealed, reside in close proximity.

In his application for bail, Forde told the court he was defending himself. 

“I am not aggressive; I will clearly like to say that,” he stated. “I was defending myself and I had no choice. . . . I believe I should be given a chance to go home because this is not a regular occurrence for me. I don’t go around the place attacking people. Anything
that I did was in self-defence. I am not a troublemaker, I don’t have any other previous offences . . . . I want to live a good and productive life.”

Despite his plea for bail, Magistrate Burke ordered that the accused be remanded until April 27.

https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/03/31/forde-charged-with-wounding-uncle/

President of the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN), Alistair Alexander, is calling for more practical stakeholder involvement in combating praedial larceny than mere words in pieces of legislation.
He told Barbados TODAY that because crop theft is a well-organised crime, he believes some supermarkets may unknowingly also be buyers of the stolen items.
He said BARVEN believed that while it is customary for vendors to be searched and targeted for stolen goods and produce, the time had come for all those who receive these crops through illegitimate means to be prosecuted.
“I have seen it happen where police come into the market and approach the situation as if all of us are involved. They have to target persons they suspect, not coming and ask every vendor where they get their produce because they are not going to go and ask every supermarket where they get their produce.
“It is organised crime and they go to establishments where they can easily get quick money, which are the supermarkets and such like.
“It will be important to be able, through surveillance, to trace where these people are carrying this produce and if there are particular vendors who they are carrying them to, that the authorities can prosecute and make examples of the receivers. he said.
Last week, small farmer Anthony Charles lamented that $2 000 worth of cassava was stolen from his farm in Ebenezer, St Philip, while there were reports of a field of sugarcane belonging to a private farmer being attacked by thieves.
A few days later, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir told Barbados TODAY that the Protection of Agricultural Products Act 2022 was proclaimed on Monday and will help farmers to protect their produce from thieves
Weir said the legislation was long overdue, and he was satisfied that it properly represented the best interest of farmers whom he said were key in the creation of the document.
The Act provides for fines of up to $100 000, imprisonment for five years, or both. Before this, the maximum fine was $5 000.
The minister also indicated that the law reactivated Operation Bird’s Eye which allows for a partnership between the Barbados Police Service and the Barbados Defence Force to patrol targeted areas and carry out investigations.
Alexander said he had his reservations regarding whether the legislation would be effective, considering that the majority of the time persons selling stolen crops present themselves as legitimate farmers.
“They may be legitimate as far as they are farmers, but the produce that they carry may be illegally obtained. I think that we need to sit at the round table and really thrash out this thing. It calls for serious discussions and BARVEN can then put in measures that we think can help. If we collectively do this thing I believe that we can get it done because if you have a hole in the bucket the water will still fall through,” he said.
Alexander added: “There must be some kind of serious brainstorming on how to deal with this situation. All the different stakeholders need to come up with some type of mechanism to stop it.
“Much of what I have heard like legislation and such like, from our own intelligence, we know that there are some farmers who are involved in praedial larceny and therefore that person can write a bill of receipt as a legitimate farmer.”
Meanwhile, the president insisted that BARVEN continues to hold a zero-tolerance approach towards members purchasing produce suspected to be stolen.
He said he would even go as far as to describe crop theft as a capital offence which threatens food security on the island.
“Security of course is the lifeline of a people. And when you have a situation where farmers are discouraged from farming because their hard labour, all that they have put in, somebody just in one night come and rob them of their produce and their livelihood, is a serious thing that can discourage farmers and cause people to go out of production, threatening food security,” he said.
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb

https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/03/18/crop-theft-an-organised-crime-barven/

A man who touched the private parts of the seven-year-old has been ordered to pay her $2 500 in compensation but has the opportunity to avoid further jail time.

Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell imposed a combination sentence – a suspended sentence and a compensation order – on the offender on Friday, giving him until April 29 to pay up or he will go to prison for 201 days for the crime he committed 17 years ago.

As the molester was the neighbour of the victim, his name is being withheld by Barbados TODAY to protect her identity.

Justice Smith-Bovell, in handing down the sentence in the No. 4 Supreme Court, said while touching anyone sexually without their consent was “a violation”, committing the offence against a minor was even more appalling.

According to the facts disclosed during the trial, the child went to play with a friend who lived next door on August 25, 2006. She went into the room of her friend’s uncle and was sitting on the bed when he touched her vagina and buttocks. 

“Sexual offences are serious offences and should be treated as such. The psychological damage done to the complainant is oftentimes quite damaging and has far-reaching consequences,” Justice Smith-Bovell said.

“Sexual touches should never be done without the consent of the person who is being touched. In this case, it is a seven-year-old; it’s worse.

“Anything that is done without the consent of that person is a violation of that person. In situations like this, when the virtual complainant cannot consent, that makes the violation more egregious.”

The maximum penalty for indecent assault is five years in prison. 

While saying she agreed with the prosecution and defence that this was not the worst case of indecent assault, “it is clearly not the least serious . . . either”.

“Clearly, this situation does not merit the maximum. However, based on the objective seriousness of the offence, the court considers the starting point of two years and six months,” Justice Smith-Bovell said, pointing to the complainant’s age and the man touching her privates as the aggravating features of the offence. 

Also aggravating, she said, was “the breach of trust and relationship between the virtual complainant and the now-convicted man as an elderly neighbour whose house the virtual complainant frequented to play with friends”.

The judge also noted that the complainant still suffered emotionally and psychologically and continued to be subjected to negative comments from the molester’s family.

The mitigating factors, she pointed out, were the fact that no overt violence was used and there was no evidence of premeditation.

Based on those factors, the starting sentence was increased by one year, bringing it to three years and six months. However, given that the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating features, the sentence was then reduced by a year, taking it back to two years and six months.

Eighteen months were then deducted for the delay in the case being heard and another 164 days for the time the man had spent on remand. This left the first-time offender with 201 days left to serve. The sentence was, however, suspended for one year.

“I am very sorry I find myself in this position. I am sorry,” the convicted man said when he addressed the court on Friday.  

https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/04/01/molester-ordered-to-pay-2-500-to-victim-in-his-2016-crime/