BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ONE of the alleged masterminds of the November 14, 2010 armed robbery of 16 tourists, Elroy ‘Stanny’ Williams, and four other suspects are back in police custody following their short-lived freedom.
Information reaching this publication states that five of the seven suspects, who on Thursday (May 5) were released from Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) following the Director of Public Prosecution’s (DPP) disobedience of a Court Order, were since rearrested and police are searching for the other two.
SKNVibes learnt that Williams’ father, George ‘Naddy’ Welsh of Fig Tree, was the first suspect rearrested. He was taken into police custody a few hours after leaving the Basseterre Magistrate’s Court, while it is claimed that Williams gave himself up to the lawmen at the Sandy Point Police Station on the following day.
However, Grenville ‘Rogie’ Rogers, Junior ‘Cue’ Sobratie and Delvin ‘Stoby’ Francis were apprehended between Friday and Sunday (May 6-8), but Devon ‘X-Man’ Hodge of The Alley and Adminston Lewis of Crab Hill are still on the loose.
It was reported that since the men’s controversial release, several operations were mounted in the Sandy Point area in search of them. Also, officers were allegedly urging family members of the suspects to encourage them to give themselves up to the authorities.
On Sunday, November 14, 2010, while 17 passengers (including a baby) of the cruise ship Celebrity Mercury were aboard a coaster tour bus on their way to visit the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a large branch from a tree was placed across the access road in the vicinity of Lime Kiln to impede the smooth flow of traffic.
The driver exited the tour bus to remove the branch, but while doing so two armed, masked men approached him and he ran from that area to a nearby gas station, from where he notified the police of the incident.
While he was away from the scene, the gunmen robbed the tourists of an undisclosed sum of money, cellular phones, jewellery and other personal items.
This unprecedented and callous act resulted in the cancellation of two cruise ships’ calls to St. Kitts on November 16 and 17, 2010 and was condemned by all law-abiding citizens and nationals of the twin-island Federation, including those residing abroad.
Since then, the police had arrested and preferred charges of armed robbery against Williams, Lewis, Hodge, Rogers and Sobratie. Welsh and Francis were also charged, but with aiding and abetting.
However, the men appeared Thursday, last, for the third calling of the preliminary hearing at the Basseterre Magistrate’s Court but were released following DPP Paulina Hendrickson’s failure to comply with a Court Order, which, by law, required her to disclose the prosecution’s evidence to the defence counsel.
According to Attorney-at-Law Hesketh Benjamin, who is representing four of the accused men, the DPP was ordered by the magistrate at the second calling of the preliminary hearing to make full disclosure before the court when they would have met at the third calling.
She however did not appear in court at Thursday’s sitting but had sent a Crown Counsel to request an adjournment, to which Benjamin objected and noted the DPP’s actions as tantamount to contempt of court.
Benjamin noted that the magistrate said, “I will not be remanding these persons today. I am giving you all a further month for disclosure, but I will not be remanding them today. And when we come at the end of May and there is no disclosure, we will see what will happen from there; but today I will not be remanding them to Her Majesty’s Prison.”
To this end, the officers allowed the seven suspects to leave the confines of the court and did not return them to HMP.
SKNVibes was unsuccessful in getting a comment on the issue from the Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Vaughan Henderson. However, in a brief interview with WINN FM’s senior reporter Bert David on Friday (May 6), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Stafford Liburd said that charges for the men are still on the books.
“No charges have been dropped against the persons regarding the Brimstone Hill matter. The charges have not been dropped, but against them will continue,” he told David.
“Yes there was an incident at the court, which resulted in all of them not being in custody at the moment, but we are pursuing and we expect to have them back in custody shortly,” the DPC said.
In response to if the men were granted bail, Liburd said, “No! I did not say what led to it. I said that there was an incident at the court and that’s all I’m prepared to say.”
