Canadian tourists robbed at gunpoint in room. Sex assault upon wife as husband held at gunpoint.

Commissioner ‘Do-nothing’ Dottin

Downstairs American couple also robbed at gunpoint

“Then he grabbed me inappropriately,” she said. “It felt like forever, but it was probably like a minute.”

“I’m laying there in my night dress thinking, ‘What the hell is going on?’”

The Nation News has withdrawn the original story from its website – probably to try to limit the public relations damage for the Barbados Tourism Authority – but that doesn’t stop the foreign press from reporting another violent gunpoint robbery of tourists in Barbados.

The Star newspaper in Toronto Canada is reporting that a Canadian couple was robbed at gunpoint in the Sea-U Guest House on Tuesday night. The wife was ‘touched inappropriately’ as the husband stood impudently by and made the wise decision to let his wife be sex assaulted instead of being shot.

From the news story the robbers would have kidnapped the couple had they had a rented vehicle. Another vacationing couple at the guest house was also robbed. They were from Virginia USA so the robbers took care of tourism from both the USA and Canada.

Our Commissioner of Police, “Do-nothing Dottin” had this to say about the tourist robberies… (nothing at all)

Meanwhile in other news two men shot at Barbados Water Authority employees last night, and a home was burned to the ground after someone tossed a Molotov cocktail.

Wonderful. Just wonderful. Just f’ing wonderful.

The local press can ignore violent tourist robberies all they want, but there is this little thing called The Internet where 90% of people research their vacations before deciding on the destination. When the politicians finally decide to care about the quality of life on this rock for all of us including the tourists, they can take a few logical steps…

1. Fire Do-nothing Dottin
2. Raise police salaries enough to attract the kind of police candidates that Barbados deserves
3. Hire 100 new officers immediately to bring the RBPF up to strength.

Until all that happens and we see some improvements, be prepared to read more stories in the foreign press like this, while watching the tourism revenues tank…

York U profs robbed at gunpoint in Barbados

… from The Star, Toronto Canada Published on Thursday, April 25, 2013

Intruders in plaid shorts and bandanas entered their guesthouse and demanded money, access to the safe and a car, before doing the same in another unit. 

Crimes against tourists up 50 percent over last year

Folks, it seems to me that we should be in a full scale emergency mode over the revelations by our Royal Barbados Police Force that everything is going to hell on the south coast.

Economic terrorism is what it is alright, but the stage was set ten years ago when the political class de-funded the police to the extent that very few new recruits are of the quality that Bajans deserve.

But Nevermind the pointing fingers: we doan fix this real soon and you can kiss the economy goodbye even more than we’re already doing.

Time for action. No time left for “community meetings” or “searching for the root cause of crime”.

Time the police opened a new can of Whoop Ass…

Big jump in tourists crime

Crime against visitors are up by almost 50 per cent for the year.

Crimes against tourists “Economic terrorism” but Barbados Bar Association says that’s not as important as everyone being shot in an equal manner

“The road is closed. I need ten dollars.”

Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association wants special courts for tourist crimes – Lawyers say no way

by passin thru

We have a problem on this island right now – crimes against locals and tourists alike have skyrocketed, including street robberies where people are injured. Old folks pushed down for their bags or slammed in the face as the evil creatures grab their chains or tear off their rings. I heard one story a few weeks ago where the robber carried a small dishsoap bottle and shoved the old lady down breaking her glasses then out with the soap and rip off those rings. That’s getting vicious even for some of the badd boys on the block.

A single crime against one tourist is economic terrorism.

The badd boys on the block have to know that if they touch a tourist, the police are going to hunt them down and the court is going to give them double.

Lately two British tourists off a cruise ship got shot on a Sunday afternoon walking in the daylight. Word of that spread and the rest of the tourists headed back to the boat lickity split. Just like what happens when you drop an elevator full of people in New York City – businesses leave that office building, and they don’t renew their leases no matter how much you lower the rent. You can tell ‘em all the time that the elevators are fixed, inspected, repaired, replaced, brand new… tell ‘em what you want but once you drop an elevator full of people in New York City it’s all over for five years because so many other buildings rent office space and they haven’t dropped any elevators lately.

Barbados has dropped a whole lot of elevators lately when it comes to crimes against tourists. What you what? We got it! Unsolved rapes with the wrong man in jail for two years? Check. Tourists shot off the cruise boats or walking near their hotel? Check. Tourists beaten on the beach trying to stop a purse grab? How many you want? Boscobel Toll Gang? Still in business as strong as ever. Long Beach rapes for two years and police did nothing until some poor tourist died? We had that too and the police never did find who was torturing all those dogs and hanging them in the bushy ridge. A person who would do that to a dog is a big danger to everyone, but the police say “It’s only a dog”.

Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), president Patricia Affonso-Dass says that a special court should be established for dealing with crimes against tourists. The Bar Association says that is unfair because it means that a crime against a citizen is then viewed as less serious.

Wide-eyed tourists are like little children and deserve more protection

I agree with the BHTA. Some crimes against certain victims are more serious. Crimes against children are always viewed more seriously because we know that the children can’t protect themselves as well as adults can.

It’s the same thing with tourists. They are like little children when they walk these fields and hills and streets and beaches and it is up to Barbados to protect them and look after them more than we normally do with adults.

And if we don’t look after the tourists specially, you know that St. Lucia or Cuba would be happy to take special care of them.

Winston Churchill once said “The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

I’ll change that and say that “The inherent virtue of equal status for all victims is the equal sharing of no tourist revenues.”

It’s the best I can do on a Thursday morning before work.

passin thru

MZ251 – Turn yourself in to the Royal Barbados Police Force

click photo for large

At about 2pm today, Tuesday March 26th, my husband and I were in the car at the busy intersection by Patisserie Flindt and the Limegrove Mall, traffic coming from all 4 directions, when we witnessed these 2 motor cycles popping wheelies while overtaking the line of cars.  Just seconds before this, we witnessed these same 2 bikes plus 2 more and an ATV coming down the hill by St James Secondary School, and the ATV plus 2 of the dirt bikes were popping wheelies as they approached the junction.

With the license number so readily available, why is it that the Police will not do anything?

We live on the main west coast road and we witness these dirt bikes pulling the same stunts up and down the road every day. The stunts are dangerous and the bikes are excessively loud. The main west coast road is lined with nothing but expensive holiday homes on both sides between Holetown and Speightstown. Imagine what the tourists must think of this, or the fear they must have when witnessing such dangerous and disgusting behaviour. Our tourism product already has not got a good name without adding this to the mix.

click photos for large

Was Derek Crawford beaten by police to make him confess to rape?

Call for police video-recording of confession statements

Cheerful Commissioner Dottin ignores calls for police reform

Derek Crawford was originally charged with the rape of two visitors to Barbados – Rachel Turner and Diane Davies.

When both women said the police had the wrong man the case exploded in the worldwide news with the incompetence and brutality of the Royal Barbados Police Force front and center in the questions.

The Police Commissioner said that Crawford “confessed” to the rapes and particular knowledge of the crimes. Mr. Crawford said he signed the confession after the police suffocated and beat him. He said he would have signed anything, and BFP regular Mark Fenty agreed, saying,

“Of course Crawford confessed to a particular knowledge of the crime, who wouldn’t? How long could one man tolerate a serious beating at the CID?”

BFP reader Mark Fenty on Commissioner Dottin says accused rapist Derick Crawford confessed

We know how it is ’bout hey and we believe Derek Crawford. We believe him well. Clinton Norton and a few others would believe Crawford too, except Norton is dead in strange circumstances and some folks say the police did it. In case you’ve forgotten, somebody tortured Clinton Norton to death. He was found with blood in his lungs and sand in his nostrils and mouth – dead inside a store burglary with no sand on the floor. There’s not many stories about Clinton Norton in the local news media, nothing to see hear and we don’t like to raise that kind of thing – bad for the tourist business.

Meanwhile British Member of Parliament Sephen McPartland just called upon the Foreign Office to warn that Barbados is “not a safe place” for women travelers…

 ”I firmly believe that Barbados is not a safe place for British women to travel to as there is a rapist on the loose.

“The police have failed to reopen the case and they have failed to get Rachel justice.

“The Foreign Office should update their travel advice and make it clear that Barbados is not a safe place to travel and warn British tourists to stay away.

“Maybe then, the authorities in Barbados will make the police reopen the case and find this rapist.”

Member of Parliament Sephen McPartland quoted at BBC Barbados rapes: MP warns travellers island is ‘unsafe’

DNA? Modern police methods and investigations?

Why bother with that when you can grab a likely looker – maybe the same general description like the witness says – and then beat the hell out of ‘im til he confess! That’s a good description of police work in Barbados for many Constables. Former RBPF Constable (now a lawyer) Stephen Alleyne wants the police to video confessions from suspects.

Bajans have wanted video confessions for 20 years and more. We know how things are on this rock.

Mr. Alleyne is spitting by de road – makes him feel good but accomplish nothing!

Under Scrutiny: Time to record all confessions

By Stephen Alleyne

As the recent dismissal of two cases against Barbadian national Derek Crawford for the alleged rape of two British women continues to make news in the United Kingdom, this is an opportune time to call on Government to complete the facilities for the video and audio recording of confession statements from accused persons without further delay.

In the Crawford case, the police were seeking to rely on a statement they said was voluntarily made by Crawford in accordance with the Judges’ Rules (a set of rules first issued by the Judges of the King’s Bench Division of the United Kingdom in 1912 and revised from time to time giving guidelines to investigators on the procedure they should follow in the detaining, questioning and recording of confessions from suspects), but the two victims of the crime were adamant Crawford was not the man who raped them, resulting in the prosecution discontinuing the case.

This assertion by the two women therefore raises a number of questions about the statement the police purportedly recorded from Crawford. Did Crawford make the statement in the first place? If he did, was it because of acts of oppression or coercion visited on him that forced him to do so? And if he did because of acts of oppression, was the statement in any event true or did he make them to avoid further oppression? Because of their present method of recording confession statements, the police, in the absence of additional physical and/or scientific evidence, will find it difficult to answer these questions, as demonstrated by the Commissioner’s failed attempt to do so in a media conference.

… continue reading this article at The Barbados Advocate – Time to record all confessions

Two British tourists shot in broad daylight – Sunday afternoon walkabout in Bridgetown

UPDATED: Latest radio reports indicate a purse snatching – and when the tourists resisted both were shot.

Does the Barbados Tourism Authority have an action team in place now?

Serious Injuries: 70 year-old man shot in side, woman shot in thigh

The debate over the ‘cash for gold’ businesses and the growing number of street robberies took another serious turn today when two elderly tourists were shot in broad daylight in the city. We are speculating that the motive was robbery because precious little information has made its way to the television and radio even 7 hours after the first report.

“Two tourists shot on a Sunday in broad daylight? Everybody should be working full days to find out what happened and to arrest those responsible.

We should be looking after the injured tourists and keeping their loved-ones informed.

We’re only talking our entire economy here, ya know!”

What we do know is contained in the Nation article below.

There are good and bad things happen to tourists all over the world, but Barbados has to this point maintained a reputation as a generally safe destination as long as people use the same care that they would when back home – doan be walking down dark sidestreets at 2am and expect nothing to happen. That is true in Paris, London, New York and Bridgetown.

On the other hand, if two elderly tourists can’t be safe on Hincks Street at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, then we have some real, heavy trouble.

Were they from a cruise ship or yacht? Perhaps taking a long walkabout? Did they take a taxi into the city for some shopping? That might be the case. On the other hand (and we are just wild talking here) suppose that the two tourists were trying to purchase drugs or engaging in some other high risk activity? This is just wild talking on are part to make the point that the information matters, and getting that information to the public matters too. Is there a madman on the run? Was this a robbery that went bad? Was it fallout from a domestic dispute? Bajans should know something more by this time than we currently know.

Only last week a Brit wrote to Barbados Free Press and said he and his wife wouldn’t be returning. (See BFP’s “With great sadness and best wishes” a British tourist says goodbye to Barbados forever)

What is known so far…     

All Sugar Hill Resort staff to be fingerprinted by police. No refusals allowed.

click image for police letter demanding staff fingerprints

Dear Barbados Free Press:

The police are requesting that all staff and contractors at Sugar Hill voluntarily submit for fingerprinting in relation to some break-ins at the resort. Is this legal? Will they also be fingerprinting guests who stayed at the resort? What about friends of owners? People eating at the restaurant during that time?  What will happen to the fingerprints?

This seems wrong and a bit racist. While it appears voluntary, there seems that there might be consequences if you refuse.

Has this fingerprinting been done before at other crime scenes? If something was stolen at a school will the police now be fingerprinting all students and all teachers? If something was stolen at Parliament, will Miss Mottley and Mr. Stuart “be first in line” like Sugar Hill Resort’s operations manager volunteers? Where is this going? Is this the new normal for the Barbados Police?

Concerned

The email from Sugar Hill Resort management…

From: sugarhill
Date: 6 March 2013
To:
Subject: RBPF Finger Printing Staff at Sugar Hill

Dear All,

As you are aware our file was passed to the Major Crimes Department in the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF). They have requested that all Staff with access to the Estate be finger printed as they are in possession of some forensic evidence, finger prints, from properties that suffered burglaries. See attached their letter of request.

Barbados Detective Constable on Owen Arthur: “Give the man 2 bottles of Mount Gay and tell him go home and don’t come back.”

Should police officers openly discuss politics?

by WSD

We have many sayings in Barbados and two of my favourites are mostly true: “Everything is political” and “Nothing is secret for long”.

Everything can’t help being political in a smaller society where everyone knows everyone else and knows everyone else’s business. You can sneak around on Bim with somebody’s husband or wife but sooner or later it will out. Sneaking around always does out in Bim.

No secrets when it come to politics either! Bees against Dems on election day and after election day too. In the public service when a supervisor position opens up, LOOK OUT! Watch the Bees and the Dems line up to support their brothers and sisters.

Our last Chief Justice – just the highest judge in the country that’s all – was a former BLP politician, attorney general and acting Prime Minister. Did something ever get judged one way and not some other way because the judge was a BLP and the accused was a BLP member too? That was always in the back of people’s minds and it shouldn’t have been. Whether David Simmons was a good Chief Justice or not doesn’t matter if it looked bad that he was a politician in charge of the courts.

When there is a possible conflict of interest based on family or friendships or business relationships it damages the people’s faith in the institutions. A big criticism of Chief Justice Simmons accepting the position was that it looked bad, and caused people to be suspicious that the highest judge might have conflicts of interest based on his politics.

So it can be with other government professions too, and that includes police officers.

“This tell me something about Owen Arthur, he pushed out Mia because he wanted to be prime minister if they won the elections, now they lost he put he back in, give the man 2 bottles of Mount Gay and tell him go home and don’t come back. My respect to Mia for taking things so cool.”

Posted on the BLP Facebook page by a Detective Constable of the Royal Barbados Police Force

Is it proper if a police officer discusses politics on the internet while identifying themselves as a police officer?     

A reasoned view of the Royal Barbados Police Force

If the current staff could be like the police officers I once knew

by Mark Fenty

We obviously cannot invalidate the important job the Royal Barbados Police Force is doing in Barbados, but we are certainly troubled by the many instances of misconduct surrounding this institution. Some people fail to realize that the Royal Barbados Police Force is much like any other organization in Barbados, and is therefore subject to some of the same faults and failings as all. And like any other organization there are good and bad apples within.

So with this thought in mind, we therefore cannot unilaterally or arbitrarily besmear the efforts of the majority for the wrong doings of a few bad apples in the Force. It is important however that we are impartial in our judgment of the Royal Barbados Police Force, and assign blame where it is needed. I think we all can agree that the job of a peace officer is quite difficult at times.

And to be quite frank, there are often calls for some officers to do things that aren’t conductive to proper policing. Nevertheless, too often some of us take for granted the effort it take on the part of these peace officers to maintain the public peace.

In any event, some of these peace officers are men of integrity whose objective it is to ensure the public order. Others are rotten apples who see an opportunity to use their position of power to take advantage of the marginalized elements in our society. I knew both elements quite well, because I was born and bred just behind a major police station in Barbados. I saw both sides of the coin but for the most part, most of the men and women I once knew were good nature people who would go out of their way to give you their shirt of their back. That’s the kind of men and women I once knew, and that’s the kind of men and women who once constituted the Royal Barbados Police Force in my day. I would like to give a shout out to Commission Alvin Griffith if he is still living, a man of honest purpose and simple integrity, cloth with the rare qualities of dignity, decency and decorum.

An embarassing moment for Police Commissioner Dottin

Clinton Norton: Sand in nostrils and mouth shows he didn’t die indoors at the burglary.

Every once in a while the Nation or the Barbados Advocate or the CBC run a “feel good” story about our Royal Barbados Police Force – usually after some scandal that brings international attention to the failings of our understaffed, under-trained, under-paid bunch of temporary workers charged with keeping people safe on this rock.

“Of course Crawford confessed to a particular knowledge of the crime, who wouldn’t? How long could one man tolerate a serious beating at the CID?”

BFP reader Mark Fenty on Commissioner Dottin says accused rapist Derick Crawford confessed

The last big scandal was an innocent man Derrick Crawford jailed for two years waiting for his trial for the rape of two Brit tourists who said he wasn’t the rapist. Before that the scandal was the police covering up the “apparent murder” of Clinton Norton who was tortured to death and found with blood in his lungs and sand in his nostrils and mouth – dead inside a store burglary with no sand on the floor! Then there was the finger rape of Jamaican tourist Myrie and the Terry Schwarzfeld and Colin Peter murders and attending police foul-ups. We could go on and on but you get the message: our police aren’t exactly world class.

Let me translate that for you…

Now in the wake of the Derrick Crawford foul-up where the only evidence against him was a “confession”, Police Commissioner Dottin is in the papers telling police to “avoid over reliance on confessions to solve crime,”

The real meaning of the Commissioner’s message to his officers?  “Stop beating confessions out of people.”

And of course in the news article there is the obligatory mention that videotaping of all confessions is coming “soon”. Sure! LOL!  Like it was coming “soon” 10 years ago!

Further Reading

Have a look at Barbados Today’s Uncouth SSU Cops, then…

We encourage our readers to go to the website of The Nation to read this news story, but we have to print the whole thing here because that paper has a history of changing the news. Read No need to rely on confession

No need to rely on confession

STRESSING the need to avoid over reliance on confessions to solve crime, Commissioner of Police, Darwin Dottin, has urged lawmen to remember the importance of science, technology and the collection of evidence.

The Anna Druzhinina Murder: Hanged by the neck until dead, body set on fire. “It’s not murder” says the DPP

Charles Leacock, Barbados DPP frightened of murder trials?

“How does a child “accidentally” die from being strung up and hanged?  If this does not show clear intent to murder, then what does?”

Why did they burn the house?

Part 3 of 3 – a look at the Anna Druzhinina murder. Read Part 1 here.

By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D

Persaud and McCollin both stated they burned the house to destroy the evidence. This statement is not supported by the facts which DPP Leacock failed to present.  John Jackson had taken five years to build a section attached to the old plantation house at the back, as a gift of love for his wife, Larisa.  It was a beautiful, large bedroom suite, surrounded by windows and a magnificent view of the ocean.  One had to climb a staircase detached from the main house to get to it.  Persaud knew of the significance of this new part of the house.  It was as far from the spot of the murder as one can get.  They did not burn it to destroy evidence. Persaud instructed McCollin to burn it as part of his revenge on John Jackson to inflict maximum pain.  McCollin started the fire by lighting the cover and sheets on the king size bed.  No fuel was used.

The other section they set fire to was the front bedroom where they lay Anna across the bed.  This, too, was not the scene of the hanging.  Petrol and diesel was poured all over Anna’s body with a 6” line of it on the rug and tile floor, leading out the door and 5’ across the balcony.  As the Jackson’s car came up the long driveway, Persaud told McCollin and McCollin lit a match to the line of petrol then hid in the hallway so that when the parents entered the house they would see their daughter’s body burning.  Evidence indicates that Persaud was positioned in the room adjoining the bedroom waiting with the spear gun to attack Mr. Jackson when he came to Anna’s body.   Fortunately, John Jackson got to Anna’s body before flames engulfed her and he stomped out the flames.  The spear gun malfunctioned and Persaud fled the scene out the back and over the balcony.  When McCollin saw Persaud leaving, he too left down the staircase, swinging his ax at one of the dogs as he made his escape.

“Persaud knew that Anna’s father had hanged himself at the top of the stairs when she was a baby in Russia.  Persaud’s revenge plan was to hang Anna in the same manner in order to inflict maximum pain to her mother and step-father.”

The new bedroom suite on the back was entirely destroyed.  The burning was part of Persaud’s revenge plan. They did not bother to pour petrol or light a fire in the part of the house where they knocked Anna down, tied her up, or carried her to stand on the paint cans. All evidence of the actual location of their crime remained untouched by fire.  This explanation was not presented to the Court as evidence.

Persaud, not McCollin, must have got the fuel cans because the three dogs (including a Great Dane and Rottweiler) would have attacked McCollin if he went downstairs to search for fuel cans.  Persaud was known to the dogs, but McCollin was not.  Also, it was pitch black and there was no electricity for lights in the storeroom.  Only someone who knew the house would know where to get the fuel cans.

Murder or manslaughter?

DPP Leacock stated, “We could not prove the necessary intention to kill, but placing someone, who is tied, to stand on a bucket is wanton and deliberately reckless.”  Leacock further stated Persaud placed Anna in “a situation where death is almost certain.”

The police statements stated that McCollin warned Anna that if she moved she would die.   They knew with a certainty that she would die because they admitted to telling her as much, and then they left her until she collapsed to her certain death.  How does a child “accidentally” die from being strung up and hanged?  If this does not show clear intent to murder, then what does? 

The Anna Druzhinina murder – Part 2: “Leave her. That’s one less for us to deal with.”

“In 2012, Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock reversed the roles of McCollin and Persaud, portraying McCollin as the mastermind, saying he “instructed” Persaud to get some wire, and he “instructed” Persaud to get some paint cans.”

“While sitting on the balcony waiting, they heard the paint cans fall.“

When she collapsed, her death by strangulation did not come quickly.  Her body must have turned and twitched as is normal in a hanging death.  Since McCollin stated “She is not dead,” when she collapsed, Persaud had time to lift her body to save her.  Instead, he ordered McCollin to “Leave her.  That’s one less for us to deal with.”

If that isn’t murder, then what is?

Part 2 of 3 – a look at the Anna Druzhinina murder. Read Part 1 here.

By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D.

Who surprised who?

In 2010 at the manslaughter trial for the accomplice McCollin, as reported in the local press, DPP Leacock stated Persaud and McCollin surprised Anna.  As they entered through the bottom of the house, they could hear her upstairs drawing water to water the plants. They surprised her in her bedroom at her computer.  McCollin stated in his confession that Persaud dragged her across the bedroom rug by her hair, put the noose around her neck, put his foot on her back, and jerked her head back and forth viciously enough for McCollin to state he was “frightened” from Persaud.  In 2012, DPP Leacock did not present these facts and reversed his statement, stating Persaud and McCollin were surprised by Anna.

Who was the leader?

In 2010, Andrew Pilgrim, Defence attorney for McCollin, said the facts “clearly revealed who was the leader and who was the follower. McCollin was led by the man [Persaud] and he was a secondary part of the plan.  He had no interest in the offence other than robbery.  He was told by the principal actor that he would get some weed whackers.”  McCollin states he was frightened of Persaud when he watched the manner in which he yanked Anna’s head back and forth with the noose around her neck.  DPP Leacock recommended 16 to 20 years for manslaughter for McCollin.  In 2010, after McCollin was sentenced for manslaughter, Leacock explained he had to accept McCollin’s manslaughter plea in order to have him testify as a witness in the murder trial which he promised for Persaud.  Yet, none of McCollin’s testimony was used and no murder trial was held.

In 2012, Leacock reversed the roles of McCollin and Persaud, portraying McCollin as the mastermind, saying he “instructed” Persaud to get some wire, and he “instructed” Persaud to get some paint cans.  In spite of clear evidence and statements to the police to the contrary, Leacock accepted Persaud’s plea that he never laid a hand on Anna, was not in the room when she was tied up, did not go to see her hanging when she collapsed off the paint cans, and did not search the house for items to steal.  Leacock recommended 25 years for Persaud, longer than he had recommended for McCollin the accomplice.

Was a towel tossed over Anna’s head?

Justice Crane-Scott stated in her sentencing, presumably from DPP Leacock’s representation,  that a towel was tossed over Anna’s head so she could not see.  Logically, this did not make sense.  In order not to see out from under a towel tossed over one’s head, the towel would have to be a large bath towel.  If that were the case, then how could the noose be tied without the towel interfering?  A common blue checkered kitchen towel was folded and tied tightly around Anna’s eyes catching her long hair in the knot.  When the Jackson’s found her, the towel was slipped down around her neck.

When they identified the knotted towel later at the police station, Anna’s hair that had been pulled from her head was still tied in the knot.  This evidence is not disputed. 

Why did DPP Leacock misrepresent the evidence and say a towel was “tossed over her head?”

Who put her on the paint cans?

In 2010, DPP Leacock stated Druzhinina was home alone when the two entered.  According to local press coverage, DPP Leacock stated they seized her, bound her hands and feet as she screamed and begged for her life.  But in 2012, Persaud’s defence attorney stated to the court “the facts reveal he [Persaud] wasn’t even in the room.”   Leacock did not contest this. 

Barbados murder of Russian teen Anna Druzhinina: Censorship and Travesty of Justice

Charles Leacock, Barbados Director of Public Prosecutions

“The disturbing question remains, why didn’t DPP Leacock press a murder charge and conduct a trial for the brutal hanging murder of the Russian teenager?”

Editor’s note: This article comes to us by email and we’ve done our best to fact check the contents and author. Remember folks: this is a blog, not a newspaper. We rely on our readers to assist with the fact checking and discussions and to remember to take everything you read here or anywhere with a little salt at first… Think for yourself, sleep on things, then make up your own mind…

Barbados Murder: Anna Druzhinina

Part 1 of 3
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D.
January 3, 2013
Barbados

On Nov. 8, 2008, Russian teenager Anna Druzhinina was brutally hanged in her home in Barbados one day after her 16th birthday.  Her feet and hands were bound behind her with electrical cable, she was blindfolded, gagged and put to balance barefoot on a metal paint can stacked on top of a plastic can.  A wire noose was tied around her neck and strung over a rafter.  The co-accomplices, Persaud and McCollin, left her to sit on the balcony and wait for her parents until she collapsed and hanged.  McCollin warned Anna if she fell off she would die.

DPP Charles Leacock did not present the available evidence in a murder trial for Teerath Persaud when there was overwhelming evidence plus testimony from the accomplice, McCollin, to demonstrate intention to murder Anna Druzhinina.  The disturbing question remains, why didn’t DPP Leacock press a murder charge and conduct a trial for the brutal hanging murder of the Russian teenager?

Guyanese Teerath Persaud, who was employed as a security guard by her parents at SO-LO wholesale food store in Black Rock, killed her along with his accomplice Christopher McCollin.  Anna had been known to Teerath since she was 7.  According to the court sentencing for manslaughter in 2010 of the accomplice McCollin, they went for “revenge and robbery”.

Teerath Persaud was allowed to plead to manslaughter and sentenced Dec 11, 2012, to just less than 21 years (plus time already served).  The parents and public had to be offended, prior to sentencing, by reading in the paper that Persaud went to steal garden tools and that Anna “jumped” to her death and accidentally died.  Does it take six hours to steal garden tools?  The garden tools, unlocked below the house, were untouched.

Read Justice Crane-Scott’s sentencing remarks at http://www.lawcourts.gov.bb/Lawlibrary/events.asp?id=892 .

After waiting four years for a murder trial, the DPP accepted a manslaughter plea from Persaud.  This is a travesty of justice and a dark day for Barbados.  The Nation News printed a two-page spread with 4 photos of Anna and the murder scene on Dec. 23, 2012, in both the hard copy paper and online at http://www.nationnews.com/index.php/articles/view/deaths-load/ .

On January 2, the Nation News story page would not load.  A Google search for the words “Anna Druzhinina Dec 2012 deaths load” listed a link to the story.  When pages are removed from the internet, Google saves the last copy or snapshot of the page in an archival file called “cache.”  The cache showed an empty page with the message “Preview not available,” proving that the page had been removed.

 It looks like ongoing censorship has been hiding this murder crime so as not to let the international press get hold of it.  Later in the day, the Nation News page was restored and Google cache showed the screen shot:

click photo for large

Coming in Part 2: Revenge or robbery?

Commissioner Dottin says accused rapist Derick Crawford confessed to particular knowledge of crimes

UPDATED: January 1, 2013 – Victims angry with Commissioner Dottin!

“Dr Rachel Turner and Diane Davies are hopping mad because of comments made by Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin during a Press conference last week.

The top cop had indicated that both women were uncooperative during the investigation of their rape, at the same spot two days apart, and that the Police Force had done its job properly in arresting Derick Crawford.”

The Nation: Reopen the Case! Find the man who raped us!

But can we trust a confession collected by the police without video?

For years judges and commissions have recommended that the Royal Barbados Police Force video confessions to crimes to remove the doubts.

Why should there be doubts? Aren’t all our police officers perfectly proper and honest when it comes to confessions?

Bajans know that many young men have died or been seriously injured in police custody where it is said that the police were trying to obtain confessions. Our officers have been known to shoot unarmed bicyclists in the head when they didn’t stop for police for a “routine checkstop” and were riding away. Young men have been known to jump off a cliff 50 feet into the sea and die rather than face questioning by our police. Or maybe they didn’t jump.

Can you blame Bajans for having doubts about the confession of Derick Crawford? Did the police provide him with the “particular details” of the crime that appeared in his confession?

“We know what goes on ’bout hey, and that’s why we have doubts.”

Commissioner Dottin: we wouldn’t be having this conversation and public embarrassment if you had of ordered that confessions be videoed as you said you were going to do years ago.

Video courtesy of The Bajan Reporter

Barbados Police need to watch CSI crime shows!

“DNA evidence? Hair and semen samples? What’s that?” says the Commissioner of our Police

submitted by Johnny Up

In the wake of yet another world-wide embarrassment for the Royal Barbados Police Farce, Commissioner Darwin Dottin is desperately performing damage control. Again.

Dottin is becoming pretty adept at damage control: too bad he can’t devote the same amount of energy to managing major crimes – then he wouldn’t always be in this position.

This time it’s about Derick David Rudolph Crawford who languished in jail for two rapes he did not commit, or so say the two victims. Next time it will be about some other person who our police beat a confession out of or planted evidence on. It is a wonder the police bothered arresting Mr. Crawford at all but they needed a warm body to show the tourists. Crawford should consider himself lucky in some ways and don’t we all know it!

Video-taped confessions? What’s it take: a computer and an internet camera. Maybe a good old fashioned 8mm or VHS video camera, a $30 karaoke microphone on the never-never. Barbados police been talking ’bout video taping confessions for years. We’ve had studies, mentions in Parliament, statements from the COP and talk talk talk talk but never do. Why not? Police don’t want to, that’s why. Enough of the police force believe in the old way that if you beat a confession out of a man it’s still good because no man would confess to something he didn’t do. Some still believe that and they are ‘fast wit their fists and slow of their wits.’ That’s what they call them: fast fists, slow wits.

Dottin? He just need to go.

Fast.

Further Reading

Please visit The Nation to read the full article Case Study

Case Study

BY DAWNE PARRIS | TUE, DECEMBER 18, 2012 – 12:11 AM

COMMISSIONER OF POLICE Darwin Dottin will today begin a series of meetings with officials within and outside the Police Force before speaking publicly on the dismissal of two rape cases against a man whose British “victims” had insisted on his innocence.

Now is the time when we juxtapose police stories in Barbados…

Nothing to see here folks. Move along, move along now…

“I’m pleased to say to all Barbados that Barbados has a cadre of young, able-bodied, competent police officers… I don’t see any reason for us to consider looking outside of Barbados for management… There are so many police officers that I can think about that have… the requisite competencies and we are actually in a very good place in that regard…”

Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite on video at Bajan Reporter: Barbados Attorney General sees no need to Outsource top police executives

AND THEN, there is this…

US organization accuses Barbados police of covering up “apparent murder”

NEW YORK, USA, Friday October 26, 2012 – The Barbados Police Force has been accused of covering up “the apparent murder” of a Barbadian national of Guyanese and Barbadian parentage.

The accusation comes from the New York-based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) which says that Clinton Norton died “under suspicious circumstances” on September 3 this year.

CGID president Rickford Burke reportedly wrote to Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart last week, requesting an “independent and fair review” of the police investigation of Norton’s death “so as to ensure justice for the family”.

Burke is reported to have said that the Barbados police have “misled the public about the facts of the case and, therefore, his organization felt constrained to release further information to support its contention of a possible police cover-up”.

The New York-based organization has released several photographs of Norton’s body, which it claims “bore marks of violence, including what appear to be burns, lacerations and bruises”.

It contended that the photographs establish that Norton was “either beaten or tortured to death as the wounds could not have been self-inflected”.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Bertie Hinds retires. Leaves a legacy of conflict and chaos.

Submitted by Turtle Soup in response to Stephen Alleyne’s Under Scrutiny: Ciao, Bertie!

When his junior, Darwin Dottin, was promoted to Commissioner of Police, Bertie Hinds had to make a decision to do his best to support Dottin’s leadership and direction, or if he could not support the new Commissioner, to do the honourable thing and leave the Royal Barbados Police Force. Hinds had several good offers at the time in both government service and private industry and could have exited the police with best wishes from all in the larger community and a ‘well done, good and faithful servant’ from the vast majority of police personnel. He undoubtedly would have been successful in any new position where he was in ultimate charge because the man has vision and is a capable leader and policing professional.

“Stay and work to support the new police leadership, or leave – those were the two honourable choices. But Hinds chose a third option…”

Instead of going quietly or accepting his lot and doing his utmost to support the new Commissioner and his beloved Royal Barbados Police Force to the best of his ability, Bertie Hinds decided to stay and fight the new Commissioner of Police at every step – which he did most strongly for nine full years. As the clashes with Dottin became more serious, more frequent and increasingly public, the senior management of the RBPF became ineffective and split with various senior officers choosing sides. There were battles in court, and dirty tricks by Dottin and Hinds supporters. The focus of senior management (and increasingly by junior personnel also) shifted from serving the community to internal politics and conflict.

All of this was because Mr. Hinds could not discipline himself to say “Yes, Sir.” to the man whom Barbados chose over him to be the leader of the Royal Barbados Police Force. Some observers believe that Hinds thought he could someday be Commissioner of Police if he undermined Dottin sufficiently, and indeed during the battles there were calls from Hinds supporters to fire Dottin and promote Hinds.

Could Hinds have made a better Commissioner of Police than Dottin?

Possibly, even probably – but so what?

Dottin’s promotion and appointment was legal and it was the decision of those who were lawfully charged with making that decision. For whatever reason Hinds was not chosen and Dottin was.

Whatever Darwin Dottin’s professional and personal failings, he deserved better from Bertie Hinds than he got right from the start. As Commissioner of Police, Darwin Dottin deserved respect, support and most of all loyalty from his senior officers because anything else in a military organisation is destructive and undermines the public confidence in the institution.

Bertie Hinds has left the Royal Barbados Police Force, but the organisation and the community at large will be many years recovering from the decade of conflict and chaos in the senior leadership that Hinds could have stopped at any time by submitting his resignation or saying “Yes, Sir.”

Further Reading

Readers are encouraged to visit the Barbados Advocate to read Stephen Alleyne’s Ciao, Bertie! but unfortunately BFP must reprint the entire piece here because the Barbados Advocate has in the past deleted news stories to suit political agendas. As our post is based upon Alleyne’s article, we must preserve a copy…

Murderer uses victim’s BlackBerry to broadcast shooting news?

Jason Husbands’ family, friends receive shocking text message

Barbados police are investigating the shooting death of a motorist on Lamberts Road, St. Lucy on Tuesday afternoon. Jason Husbands was found dead lying next to his auto, having apparently been shot in broad daylight. Lamberts Road at this location isn’t exactly busy but neither is it deserted or infrequently traveled by the public. Somebody must have seen something in the middle of the day!

Family and friends told The Nation that all Mr. Husbands’ contacts received a message from his BlackBerry that he had been shot, and that from the content of the message they believe it was sent by the killer or killers.

Why would Husbands’ killer send a message like that? That act in itself is a message to Husbands’ family and friends – and to the people of Barbados – that the killer thinks he (she? they?) can act with impunity and not worry about the police.

Further information: The Nation – Murder Mystery

Photo courtesy of The Nation and the Husbands family.