by WADE GIBBONS

SOME COURT MARSHALS are worried that one of their colleagues has returned to his substantive post despite facing kidnapping charges.

Court Marshal Neil Anderson Forde, 31, of Cane Garden, St Thomas, along with three others, was jointly charged with unlawfully removing 16-year-old Jamar Crichlow from Hothersal Turning, St Michael, without his consent on June 4.

Forde was remanded to Harrison Point, St Lucy, by Magistrate Christopher Birch for three weeks, but was subsequently given bail.

When contacted, Acting Chief Marshal Levi Austin admitted that Forde was indeed in the department. However, he said he "wasn't really working".

"He has returned to work, but he has not been given any work. He is only here waiting on a document. We can't tell him to go home until the document comes. We still have to let him come. So he is here pending documentation," Austin said.

Forde cannot be sent home until the Personnel and Administration Department officially informs the office.

One of Forde's colleagues told the SUNDAY SUN that several of them felt uneasy and believed that until the court had made a decision about Forde's innocence or guilt, their functions, and the faith of the public in their department, were undermined by his presence.

Forde first appeared in court on June 7.

This is the second recent occasion that an officer of the Court Process Office has faced charges.

In January 2002, then Chief Marshal Belfield Randolph McCollin was arrested and charged for the theft of more than $16 000 between December 1997 and August 2000, and August 3 and 4, 2000.

McCollin was immediately suspended and was convicted last year.