Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterPUBLIC DEFENDER Howard Hamilton, Q.C., has indicated that his office will be carrying out an investigation into the circumstances under which 13-year-old Janice Allen, of Trench Town, St. Andrew, was fatally shot by a policeman on April 14, 2000.
Mr. Hamilton is also asking relatives of the deceased to contact the Office of the Public Defender at 78 Harbour Street, Kingston, as soon as possible.
Constable Rohan Allen (no relation to the deceased) was freed in the Portland Circuit Court last month after the Crown conceded that it had no evidence linking him to the crime.
The court was told that a firearm register, which would have documented whether the constable was carrying a gun that fateful evening, was destroyed by a fire at the Denham Town Police Station. It was also disclosed that the investigating officer a critical ingredient to the case was now living abroad.
Justice Lloyd Hibbert directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.
Following the disclosures in court, it has subsequently been discovered that the information that the investigating officer was living abroad was false. The investigating officer, it was alleged, could have tendered a statement which would provide a link between the gun and the policeman who fired the fatal shot.
FULL INVESTIGATION
The Public Defender's decision on Thursday to conduct an enquiry followed closely on the call made by Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog group, for a full investigation into how the prosecution "needlessly sabotaged" its own case based on wrong information. Amnesty International said "the investigation needs to show who gave the incorrect information to the prosecution and why, upon receiving the information, the prosecution chose to continue with a trial they must have known they would lose, rather than attempting to have an adjournment and locate the detective."
Allen was shot and killed a few metres from her gate in Trench Town. The police reported that Allen was killed during an exchange of gunfire between the police and criminals in the area. The accounts by witnesses of the incident indicated that Allen was shot directly by the police.
Statements were collected in the matter and the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled that Constable Allen should be charged with manslaughter.
