DPP says steps taken to address concerns over handling of pollution cases

 

Amid growing criticism from environmental groups, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn is assuring the public that concerns over how pollution cases are handled have been heard and reviewed. 

 

Environment protection groups have expressed outrage following Monday's hearing in the St. Catherine Parish Court, where Wisynco was freed of a pollution charge after the prosecution admitted it did not have enough evidence to link the manufacturing and distribution company to the release of fluids into the Rio Cobre in July 2023. 

 

The withdrawal of the pollution case against Wisynco marks the second time in a year that legal proceedings involving a major corporate entity and the Rio Cobre have ended without full ventilation of the issue in court.

 

In November 2024, Trade Winds Citrus was acquitted of criminal charges after lawyers for the National Environment and Planning Agency told a judge that they were offering no further evidence against the company in a controversial move that triggered widespread public backlash. 

 

One environmental watchdog, Friends of the Rio Cobre, says it has written to the Director of Public Prosecutions calling for a full review of all environmental related cases.

 

Speaking Wednesday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106 FM, Ms. Llewellyn said a full review of all the cases has been completed.

 

"And where prosecutorially, if it is that there is any shortfall or any gap or anything like that, if there is, we are taking steps, if possible, to address it. Where we will be going apace in court, we will continue to do that. What I will undertake - as far as I can, because, you know, I demit office on September 20th - but I have put things in place and there is that unit there now, and I have instructed that even after I have left, that the public interest would be best served by making sure that, given the clamour for transparency, that each matter that is disposed of, that a press release be prepared, indicating what occurred, and sent out to the public," she sought to assure. 

 

Ms. Llewellyn also pointed to the need for training of clerks of court to ensure they execute their duties accurately and efficiently. 

 

"I understand that in some of the parish courts, you have had high turnover of clerks. It's not like in my day where clerks used to stay there for two or three years, so you would have the institutional memory. Because what I have had to do now, I am going to be issuing and it's practically completed, a protocol to the clerks and external counsel on what having a fiat, your duties and responsibilities. I suspect that a lot of clerks don't even know that they are supposed to have a supervisory role in the prosecution," she lamented. 

 

At the same time, Ms. Llewellyn said the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions cannot train clerks of court without the permission of the Court Administration Division and the chief justice.