Bomb scare case dismissed

This country’s first ever bomb scare case has been dismissed.

On Friday May 4, 2007 Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Colin Williams decided not to present any more evidence into the matter.{{more}}

Akeem Sutherland, a 17 year-old boy of Edinboro, had been charged with making a telephone call to the Bishop’s College Kingstown on September 28, 2006 and stating that there was a bomb in the building.

Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Colin Williams told SEARCHLIGHT that the matter was discontinued due to insufficient clarity in the evidence given to the court. The DPP further noted that there were strong concerns as to if the right person had been brought before the court to answer the charge.

Williams further added that there would have been a substantial risk of injustice being done and that there was some degree of difficulty in laying the charge.

The case, which started on May 2, heard evidence from three witnesses. One witness, A fifteen-year-old past student of the school stated on the morning of September 28, she left home with her aunt’s cellular phone. She said when she got to school she met Akeem on the steps at the hard court and he asked her to lend him her phone.

The young lady said she heard Akeem say, “There’s a bomb in the school and you must (expletive) get out”. She told the court that she thought he was joking but when the phone was given back to her, she heard someone say “Who is this?” The girl said she hung up the phone immediately because she was frightened. She then returned to her class when she heard the announcement for students to evacuate the classrooms.

The other witness in the matter, Debon Moses, then secretary at the school said she received a telephone call around the break interval. She said a male voice on the other end of line told her that a bomb was on the school’s compound. Moses said that after the person hung up the phone, she dialed 1471 and got the number where the call came from.

Principal of the institution, Samantha Minors-Rouse said that she had suspended Akeem for two to three days starting from September 26 for being disrespectful to her. She said after receiving the message from Moses she quickly ordered the students to evacuate their classrooms and then called in the police.