BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE five men charged with the Sunday, November 10, 2010 robbery of 17 cruise ship passengers (including a baby) have all pleaded guilty and will be sentenced following their social reports.
The men – Elroy ‘Stanny’ Williams of Crab Hill, Sandy Point; Delvin ‘Sobie’ Francis of St. Paul’s; Curtis Long of Downing Street, Sandy Point; Junior ‘Q’ Sobratie of Sandy Point; and George ‘Naddy’ Welsh of Fig Tree – on Wednesday (June 6) appeared before His Lordship Justice Errol Thomas at the Basseterre High Court and pleaded guilty to their respective charges.
They were indicted on four counts of robbery, one count of assault with intent to rob, one count of accessory before the fact and one count of conspiracy to rob, and had pleaded not guilty to the charges at a hearing during the 2012 January Assizes.
However, on Wednesday, Sobratie, Williams and Long each pleaded guilty to one count of robbery while Francis and Welsh both pleaded guilty to accessory before the fact.
Three others - Devon ‘X-Man’ Hodge of The Alley, Adminston ‘LB’ Lewis of Crab Hill and Grenville ‘Rogie’ Rogers of Romney Ground, all of Sandy Point – were also charged with the robbery but were set free following a Preliminary Inquiry at the Basseterre Magistrate’s Court on Monday, September 5, 2011.
On Sunday, November 14, 2010, while 17 cruise ship tourists (including a baby) 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 incident had made headline news in the international media and had resulted in the cancellation of two cruise ships’ calls to Port Zante, St. Kitts on November 16 and 17, 2010.
Shortly after the incident, Hodge, Rogers and Sobratie were arrested and subsequently charged with armed robbery on November 18, 2010.
Williams, who was arrested on the same day with the trio, was also charged with armed robbery on the following day along with the fifth suspect, Lewis.
On Thursday, February 3, 2011, police arrested and charged Welsh and Francis for their alleged involvement in the armed robbery.
And after evading a police manhunt for a number of months, the eighth suspect, Curtis Long, was captured in a house in Sandy Point on Wednesday, August 3, 2011.
