Keen?to have transparency behind the closed doors of the police station, well-known criminal lawyer Andrew Pilgrim says it’s time legislation was enacted for the video and audio recording for the accused.
In a cry for justice, the president of the Barbados Bar Association said he was concerned about the number of convictions based on confessions.
Before an audience at the I’Akobi Youth Resource Centre in Tweedside Road, St Michael, that included Senior Superintendent of Police Mark Thompson, Pilgrim said he was convinced there were some police officers who beat people.
“I will go to my grave with the view . . . . There are good police and there are not. There are lawyers who steal money and there are lawyers who do not.
“There are police in Barbados who beat people. We don’t have any way of checking what they do or don’t do. We don’t have any tape recording or Justice of the Peace present. They can do what they like. I see the wounds on people.
“We have to weed out the bad lawyers and we have to weed out the bad police. There is much work to do,” said Pilgrim, who was speaking on the topic Search, Seizure And Unlawful Arrest, the first in a series of sessions undertaken by the Rastafarian community celebrating International Year For People Of African Descent.
