Murderer Leroy Griffiths heading home to Barbados?

Back in 2002, Barbadian Leroy Griffiths was threatening a woman with a knife in a pub in Addingham, UK. When a young lad named Mark Webster stepped in to try and talk some sense into the man with the knife, Griffiths stabbed him to death for his trouble.

A bad bastard, that Leroy Griffiths.

Griffiths went away for ‘life’ but here we are 13 years later and it looks like he will be deported from the UK to Barbados, his ‘homeland’.

Welcome home, Mr. Griffiths. Seeing as how you’ve been deported from the UK six times in the past, we hope you won’t stick around ’bout hey.

Further Reading

BBC News: Dec 18, 2002 Murder verdict on knife killing

Ilkley Gazette, Sept 2013: Ilkley dad in emotional plea for son’s killer to be kept away

Dr. Gerald Bull assassinated 21 years ago: Was it the Israelis? Americans?

UPDATED: March 24, 2011

Thanks to an old friend, we ask Who was Jonathan Moyle and why was he murdered a few days after Gerald Bull? (photo of Jonathan Moyle above)

On the evening of March 22, 1990, Dr. Gerald Bull got out of a car in Brussels, Belgium and headed back to his apartment.

Gerald Bull got out of the elevator and walked toward his apartment.  From the shadows another shadow stepped, holding a silenced pistol.  Three shots were fired into the back of Gerald Bull and, after he fell, two more into his head for good measure.  Gerald Bull was dead.

… from the blog Today’s History Lesson: Supergun no Bull to Somebody

“Super Gun” Inventor Felled By Assassins – Were They American, Israeli or Others?

In the mid-sixties, the Government of Barbados allowed the Space Research Corporation (SRC) to use Barbados as a base for it’s High Altitude Research Project (HARP) in exchange for the installation and maintenance of an advanced Radar system at the Seawell Airport (now the Grantley Adams International Airport).

Officially, the purpose of HARP was to develop an alternative method to launching payloads into space. The scientists were exploring the possibility of using large guns to fire objects into space… instead of the conventional method of using rockets.

The large gun could be heard over most of the island… and just a few miles away, our house began to crack in the walls from the shockwaves…

(Thanks to Stephen Mendes and his excellent photo documentation of the HARP project in Barbados.)

Further BFP Reading About Gerald Bull & HARP Supergun

A Piece Of Barbados History: Dr. Jerry Bull’s Assassination, The HARP Gun, Saddam Hussain and Israeli Intelligence

Barbados Author Angela Cole Writes BFP About Gerald Bull, HARP – And The Claim That Bull’s Assassin Was Recently In Belize

Two Barbadians arrested in mass murder fire.

 

 

 

Updated: September 3, 2012

The end result for the Campus Trendz fire deaths turned out pretty much like we predicted two years ago: murder charge, guilty plea to manslaughter – but no real changes at all.

Bajan daughters and sons still work in downtown death traps with no way out, we still don’t have a Building Code as law and the equipment deficiencies at the Fire Service mean that if Campus Trendz happened again today, the same brave crying raging men who had to use manual sledge hammers to beat through the brick behind Campus Trendz would still be using manual sledge hammers – because it’s all they have.

UPDATED: September 13, 2010 – Murder Charges laid, accused named

Jamar Dewayne Orlando Bynoe, 19, Headley’s Land, Bank Hall (left)

Renaldo Anderson Alleyne, 21, Prescod Bottom, Hindsbury Road. (right)

Both young men are charged with the Murder of six young women at Campus Trendz, wounding with intent and arson in relation to the same happening. (Photos of accused courtesy of Barbados Today unless we hear from them otherwise)

Also charged with earlier petrol bombing of Chicken Galore

Bynoe and Alleyne are charged with aggravated burglary and arson at Chicken Galore at Bank Hall, St Michael, on August 13, 2010 three weeks before the September 3rd Campus Trendz murders.

Here is our original story published September 11, 2010 at 11:33pm Bridgetown time…

Barbados is still a small island with no place to run

Reports on radio and on the website of The Nation indicate that two men from Barbados are “assisting the police with their investigations” as of Saturday afternoon.

If we had to lay a bet on how this came about, we’d say that someone knew something and made a phone call that broke the case. A name, often given anonymously, is all it takes. That’s just our speculation at this point, but as we’ve said before, Barbados is a small island and smaller still if a normal criminal* is on the run after committing a horrific crime. That’s one of the things that helps to make this island relatively safe and much safer than many other countries.

If the two under arrest are the ones who robbed, chopped and then set the Campus Trendz shop on fire, their capture is some small comfort to the families of the six victims and the community – but really just one of the many steps that should happen in the coming months and years.

That’s “many steps that should happen”, but you know how it is here and so do we.

Our predictions for the Campus Trendz murder case…

Kammie Holder lays 11 preventable deaths at the door of Barbados government’s selective enforcement and complacency.

For the record, we at Barbados Free Press agree wholeheartedly with Kammie Holder about the deaths of 11 good people at the Arch Cot cave-in and Campus Trendz fire. Oh yes, Kammie asks questions in his piece, but all of us know he’s making statements. That’s just the way it is ’bout hey…

Kammie Holder - Candidate for Parliament?

“Why in the year 2010 do we have six young people in the prime of their lives dying because the Town Planning Department or the Barbados Fire Service may have been less than diligent?

We cannot allow this to be another Arch Cot, and families of these victims will be encouraged to seek redress via a civil suit, if the law permits. Did any Government institutions fail to enforce the law?

Thus, I ask these institutions what’s their mirror image? Tell us it’s not selective enforcement or complacency? Those with voices must speak for the voiceless.”

Read Kammie’s full article at The Nation: SWIMMING UPSTREAM: A mirror image to boast about?

Mass Murder in Barbados: Suspects’ descriptions and sketch

UPDATED: September 11, 2010 11:00pm Bridgetown

Two suspects arrested: Two Barbadians arrested in mass murder fire.

Somebody knows something – it’s a small island

Suspect One was wearing a blue or black peak cap, white T-shirt with horizontal green stripes, dark-coloured pants and a pair of black shoes. He is about five feet, four inches tall, of slim build and of dark complexion.

Suspect Two is about five feet, six inches tall, of slim build, and of dark complexion, with a long face with a turned-up nose, and black Afro hairstyle.

Mass Murder in Barbados. Robbery fire deaths.

UPDATED: September 11, 2010 11:00pm Bridgetown

Two suspects arrested: Two Barbadians arrested in mass murder fire.

Sorrow first. The outrage will wait – but no window bars will contain it.

Ours is a small island but today it is very small. It seems that everyone knows someone who is grieving with family members, friends or neighbours of the six women who were murdered by robbers on Friday evening.

Pearl Amanda Cornelius, 18. Kelly Ann Welch, 24. Shanna Griffith, 18. Nikita Belgrave, 23. Tiffany Harding, 23. Kellisha Ovivierre, 24.

There will be time later for the righteous outrage that is building across this country – outrage that is not directed only at the two pieces of worthless garbage who cutlass chopped and threw gasoline bombs at these young women.

No, there will be time for all that later.

The rituals have started at so many homes. Neighbours bring food so folks don’t have to cook. Photos are placed on the tables. Funeral clothes are gathered for the living and the dead. Children are asked to play more quietly so Auntie is not disturbed.

For now, we grieve, we pray and we do what we can for those who cannot stop sobbing.

Natalee Holloway suspect Joran van der Sloot wanted for Peru murder

UPDATED: Joran van der Sloot arrested in Chile – Also charged with extorting money from Natalee Holloway’s mother. We won’t follow this story on a “breaking” basis so Google “Joran van der Sloot” and you’ll get the latest.

“And now the bombshell breaking news, a disturbing twist in this case right here in the United States. Van der Sloot allegedly paid for his trip to South America by extorting money from Natalee Holloway’s mother.

The U.S. attorney in Alabama says van der Sloot promised to tell Beth Holloway what really happened to her daughter in Aruba in exchange for a big cash payout. Van der Sloot tried to get $250,000 but ended up taking $15,000 as a down payment before fleeing to South America. Van der Sloot today has been charged with extortion.”

… from GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST

Our original story…

Young woman’s body found in hotel, van der Sloot on video tape

How much more evil will Joran van der Sloot do before he is stopped? After confessing to at the very least letting Natalee Holloway die on a beach in Aruba and disposing of her in the sea – possibly while she was still alive, he was next seen trafficking young girls from Thailand to Europe for prostitution.

Now van der Sloot is wanted for the murder of 21 year old Stephany Flores in a Lima, Peru hotel on Sunday night. News stories say there is video of the two entering the hotel room at 5am and only van der Sloot exiting four hours later. The young woman’s body was found by cleaning staff. Reports say she was beaten and asphyxiated.

Joran van der Sloot took a bus to neighbouring Chile and he is now wanted on an international warrant for murder.

The decent thing would be for him to hang himself in some hovel, but something tells me van der Sloot won’t take that route out. He revels in his notoriety.

Barbados Court: Murder of Canadian tourist Terry Schwarzfeld only worth 10 years in prison – Hunted down on beach in broad daylight

Murdered Canadian tourist Terry Schwarzfeld

UPDATE: Victim Impact Statement as read in court

Our Take on the light sentence:

A plea bargain to dispose of the ugly situation as soon as possible. Only ten years for hunting down a tourist on the beach and beating her to death.

Barbados doesn’t want any scrutiny about robbery, rape and violence against tourists by the same accused at the same location for a year prior to the Schwarzfeld murder. Wouldn’t want the Royal Barbados Police Force to look stupid. Bad for business. “Say… what’s on TV tonight? Anything of interest happen at work today dear?”

Adrian Loveridge, small hotel owner

Bajan hotel owner Adrian Loveridge comments on the lousy 10 year sentence…

‘10 years for killing visitor’

Sometimes people have to speak out and if that means there are consequences, then so-be-it.

Curtis Joel Foster had already been convicted of 8 robberies including 5 on visitors. We know that at least two of these involved extreme violence because my wife personally treated two of the victims.

Mitigating arguments by the defence lawyer included ‘The court does accept that there was no use of a firearm’, but that is NOT true according to a victim impact statement issued by the husband of the murdered Teresa Schwarzfeld, Stephen Cotsman and printed in the Ottawa Citizen on 22 March and other Canwest publications across Canada.

He stated ‘we understand that he (Foster) has not admitted to what really occured and this adds to our family’s pain. Luana Cotsman is a survivor of the attack and knows exactly what happened’.

‘First, Foster accosted them with a gun and demanded money’.

‘Then, when they truthfully told him that they did not have any (money), he ran back to the bushes and retrieved a big piece of wood (the size of a baseball bat) and chased them as they ran for safety. He caught up with Terry and hit her on the back of the head – so hard that he fractured her skull. Terry never woke up again’.

And what of the rape charge?

One has to ask if the sentence matches the crimes committed and what sort of message is Barbados sending over its concerns for the safety and security of visitors to our shores?

Our deepest sympathies go out to the grieving family with the assurance that some of us do not consider the sentence passed anywhere close to being applicable to the severity of the crimes committed.

Adrian Loveridge

(And all of us at Barbados Free Press sign on to Adrian’s position: Marcus, Shona, George, Cliverton, Robert & Auntie Moses)

Articles about murdered tourist Terry Schwarzfeld disappearing from Canadian News archives

“Dear Barbados Free Press,

I thought you’d like to know the reason why past news articles about Terry Schwarzfeld are being removed from the web by Canwest. Ask yourself ‘How much was Barbados Tourism spending with Canwest before the incident? How much is Barbados spending on advertising with Canwest now?’ “

… received as an anonymous email from a BFP reader based in Canada.

“I’m trying to find out if a court date has been set for Curtis Foster, the man accused of killing Canadian Terry Schwarzfeld. I have had no luck getting through to Attorney General’s office. Have you heard anything? Any idea if a trial date has been set? Any help would be greatly appreciated.”

… email to BFP from a Canadian reader.

Making Terry Schwarzfeld Disappear

We hadn’t noticed until we received the anonymous email from Canada, but a Google search shows the truth – many of the Canadian news articles about murdered Canadian tourist Terry Schwarzfeld have been removed from the internet by Canadian news media outlets.

Included in the list of “missing” is the March 8, 2009 Ottawa Citizen article by Bruce Ward Bajan Media Ignores Attack On Women. Online site only outlet to speak out for Schwarzfeld.

Hey, like we always knew… “Money talks”

Terry Schwarzfeld Tourist Murder: Preliminary Hearing Begins against accused Curtis Joel Foster

Widower of Murder Victim Schwarzfeld complains he is kept in the dark about trial

The Canadian news outlets are reporting that the preliminary hearing in the Terry Schwarzfeld tourist murder started today in Bridgetown, Barbados. Bajan Curtis Joel Foster is charged in the February 2009 robbery and murder of the Canadian tourist.

None of the Barbados newspapers carried stories about the upcoming preliminary hearing – which doesn’t surprise most folks as the Bajan newspapers were extremely reluctant and late in covering the story at the time of the murder. It was only after the Ottawa Citizen newspaper criticized the Bajan news media and at the same time lauded Barbados Free Press as being the “only outlet to speak out for Schwarzfeld“ that the Bajan media initiated coverage.

The fact that Bajan citizens have to rely upon foreign newspapers for news about something so important as a tourist murder trial is bad enough – but the worst is the statement made to the Canadian news media by Schwarzfeld’s widower, Stephen Cotsman.

Mr. Cotsman told the Canadian press that the government of Barbados does not keep him properly informed about the ongoing events.

“(Barbados Authorities) seem to inform me after every event… So I don’t know what stage it’s at or anything like that.”

Stephen Cotsmen – widower of murdered Canadian tourist Terry Schwarzfeld tells the Ottawa Citizen and the world that Barbados authorities do not keep him sufficiently informed.

Barbados Government incompetence makes a bad situation worse

This mistake once again shows that the Barbados Government just doesn’t get it when it comes to the importance of looking after guests on the island who run into any sort of trouble – let alone having their spouse murdered on a Barbados beach in broad daylight.

Had Mr. Cotsman felt he was being properly informed and looked after by the Bajan authorities, he would have said something else – perhaps even saying something relatively positive about Barbados considering the circumstances. But no… we as a country didn’t even have enough courtesy to keep the family of the victims informed. Did our government not detail a person to be responsible for this important function? Did the police not detail a responsible and caring officer to be the liaison with the family and witnesses?

Poor show all around by our police, government and tourism authorities.

Ottawa Citizen newspaper: Hearing begins in Barbados killing – Family ‘surviving’ after women’s death

16-Year Old Russian-American Girl Murdered In Barbados: Russian Mob Revenge or Maniac?

Barbados Advocate - Monday November 17, 2008

The horrific death of 16-year old Russian-American Anna Druzhinina at Palmers Plantation House in St. John has people wondering what the real story is. The Royal Barbados Police Force has a person in custody but at the time of this writing no charges have been laid.

Any time a person with a Russian background is involved as a victim or perpetrator in Barbados thoughts of the Russian mob are bound to be on people’s minds. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s dirty Russian money flooded the world’s offshore banking centers as criminal organisations profited during the chaos that followed the breakup of the USSR. Barbados saw its fair share of the suspicious Russian transactions and nouveau riche during that time, but of late we have seen fewer of the heavy-set, quiet Russian men (always wearing dark glasses even at night) on the island.

One of our Deputy Prime Ministers was known to have many strange Russian friends and took an unusual number of trips to Europe during their time in power. Even now the Russian and Eastern European crime syndicates have their footholds in Caribbean prostitution.

Keltruth Blog has some thoughts on the recent murder of Anna Druzhinina, and one truth comes through: if the circumstances of the murder are anything but crystal clear in the public mind, Bajans will start to think about those rough men with Russian accents and dark glasses who were so new to our island fifteen years ago.

Further Reading

Keltruth Blog: Man Held In Connection With Death Of Russian Teenager On Barbados and Russian Teenage Girl Killed In Barbados – Murder & Arson Likely