Magistrate peeved over absence of accused man

It will be two weeks today since one Clayton Caine escaped the clutches of the police assigned with delivering him to court and the Chief Magistrate has reached her limit.

“This is crazy,” Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias intoned yesterday, when Caine still was not present for the hearing of his matter concerning the possession of cannabis.

The core of the frustrations in regard to the matter began with a sergeant of police coming to court on Wednesday, March 7, to explain the absence of the defendant from court. She admitted that she had picked up Caine, in execution of a bench warrant against him and brought him to the police station. She then said that it came to her attention that an incident had occurred and Caine was allegedly beaten up while there. He began to complain of medical issues and she was advised by a senior officer that Caine should be told to go and seek medical treatment. Caine was told by the police to seek this treatment, but he did not do so. That was the last time the police saw the accused. The sergeant also revealed that, personally, she had not seen any injury on Caine.

The prosecutor, Adolphus Delplesche, had expressed his displeasure at the situation, saying that the police should have taken Caine to seek the treatment, as he was a prisoner. He asked if that meant that a document issued by the court had no significance and pointed out that Caine could have been ‘acting a movie.’

The defendant was meant to be brought to court the following day to rectify the situation, but he was not.

Adding insult to injury, up to yesterday the police had not executed the order of the court against Caine.

The Chief Magistrate stated that she could not understand that no-one from the Calliaqua police station was there to further account for the accused’s absence. “I have a big, big problem with this,” she opined, saying that there had been information that the defendant was at his residence.

She called it a flagrant disregard for court attendance and said that she was putting it for today, adding, “I have never seen anything like this.”

“Obliged. Very much obliged,” replied the prosecutor.