Go to police!

COMPLAIN TO THE police hierarchy when your old criminal case is dismissed for lack of prosecution.

That’s the advice of one magistrate as the judicial system grapples with a backlog of cases, some almost four years old, that still do not have files that would allow the prosecution to start the trial.

Magistrate Douglas Frederick, presiding in Court No 1 of the District “A” Magistrates’ Court, was speaking yesterday as he dealt with three cases, two from 2014 and one from 2013, for which the prosecution still had not received files from police investigators.

“If they don’t get a file, it is dismissed. Go complain to the police. It is serious and I know how frustrating it is,” the magistrate advised the complainants yesterday.

The situation was such that a complainant whose matter was from 2016, quite recent by judicial standards, opted not to offer any evidence against the accused in her matter, even though the prosecution was in possession of a file.

“I see you all got all these back up cases and I ain’t want to do that. I really don’t want to go through all that,” she said, adding during the year she had heard nothing about her matter.

Has come under fire

In recent times, the island’s judicial system has come under fire from attorneys, as well as the Caribbean Court of Justice, which continually slams the Barbados judiciary for “inordinate systematic delays”.

Read the full story in today’s WEEKEND NATION, or in the eNATION edition.