Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

BARNES

Government prosecutor Sheron Andrea Barnes is now practising at the private bar.

Ms. Barnes, who was a journalist before she read law and qualified as an attorney, prosecuted in the criminal courts for some years - first as clerk of courts in Montego Bay, her hometown, and then all over the island as Crown Counsel from her base in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, King Street, Kingston.

She was an Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions when she resigned in December. She has since returned home to western Jamaica and has opened her law offices in Lucea, Hanover.

Called to the Jamaican Bar in 2001, she began her law career as a prosecutor employed by the Ministry of Justice. Before that, she taught at Mt. Alvernia High School, Montego Bay, for several years and was a tutor for the UWI's School of Continuing Studies.

But it is for her career in journalism that she is better known. She entered journalism just after graduating from Church Teachers' College, Mandeville, Manchester, working as a trainee journalist and then as a sub-editor at The Gleaner's Western Bureau, Montego Bay. After that, Ms. Barnes taught full time.

While pursuing a degree in mass communication at the UWI, Mona, she returned to The Gleaner part-time, working at its North Street offices, central Kingston, where she was assigned to write for The Sunday Gleaner.

In 1993, Ms. Barnes graduated from the UWI with a Bachelor of Arts degree (upper second class honours), in mass communication, majoring in print journalism. She remains passionate about writing, always having the itch to put pen to paper.

"The dynamism of the language fascinates me, particularly in the local dialect where words and phrases are coined every day and popularised by the lyrics in the dancehall," Ms. Barnes says. She adds that there's no truth to the adage, "Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never harm me", as to her, there is nothing more powerful than words - written and spoken.

The Montego Bay High School graduate returned to Montego Bay to manage the Western Regional Office of the then Jamaica Herald, and continued to write extensively and even had a weekly column in that newspaper.

But the 'study bug' bit her again and she was driven to fulfil a childhood ambition to become a lawyer. With little financial resources, she set off for Barbados, having been accepted as a 'direct entrant' to the law degree programme at the Cave Hill campus of the UWI. Ms. Barnes took her nine-year-old son, Luron, with her and underwent what would be her greatest challenge.

"It was not easy for me. There were tons of books and authorities to read, and I spent more time studying than I had ever done in my entire life. But my son and I bonded more than we had before and he did exceptionally well in school there." Back in Jamaica, her experience at the Norman Manley Law School was no different, "But I was more comfortable as I was home where I had family help and support."

Ms. Barnes finds the law fascinating and says that justice is no figment of the imagination - "It exists and we must strive to achieve it at all cost."

She has been a lifelong member of the Holy Trinity (Anglican) Church, Montego Bay, enjoys a good book, loves great music - from classical to dancehall - and enjoys travel.