Court cases tripled over the last 20 years - DPP

 

Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn has revealed that the number of cases before the courts has tripled over the last 20 years.

 

Ms. Llewellyn says with the number of cases that have to be prosecuted, there will be lengthy trials which can further compound the challenges such as finding witnesses and the availability of jurors.    

 

She was responding to questions about the Shineka Gray murder trial which concluded two days ago. Gray was murdered in 2017. 

 

"Believe you me, I can attest to the fact that over the last 15-20 years crime has tripled, the court lists have tripled in terms of the volume of cases," she acknowledged, adding that the situation will inevitably lead to trial delay.  

 

The DPP said trial delay is also a reality for other countries in the Caribbean. 

 

"If you check with prosecutors, departments and you know administration of justice in so many different places in the Caribbean, everybody has the same problem - crime has doubled and tripled everywhere. And if you talk to the prosecutors in Trinidad, you talk to the defence courts in Barbados, you go to St. Lucia, there is nowhere that you are going to find a situation where you will not have a delay," she insisted while speaking Thursday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines.

 

On Wednesday, Gregory Roberts, was found guilty in the St. James Circuit Court for killing 15-year-old Shineka Gray.

 

Gray, a grade 10 student, was found dead three days after she was reported missing.

 

Roberts and his co-accused, Mario Morrison, were later taken into custody in connection with the killing.

 

Morrison pleaded guilty in September 2022 after entering a plea deal with the state and was sentenced to life in prison a month later.