Kingston.
Almost 70 percent of the cases heard by the Corporate Gun Court between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011 were acquitted or dismissed for the lack of evdence.
This was revealed in the latest annual report of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions which was laid in the House of Representatives earlier this week.
The report shows that of the 435 cases dealt with over the period excluding the month of June 2010 no evidence was offered in 118 instances.
Another 30 cases were dismissed for want of prosecution, while there were 154 acquittals. The Crown managed to secure 116 convictions.
"It is the classic manifestation of the scenarios that occur if persons make complaints to the police and they either do not come forward to give their evidence, lose interest, or they allow themselves to succumb to intimidation, and also if the police do not properly investigate the case," says Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn.
In addition to the 435 cases that were dealt with in the Corporate Area Gun Court over the period, the DPP's annual report shows that a further 637 Gun Court matters were called up in rural area courts between April 7, 2010, and April 15, 2011. Only 231 of those rural area cases – which take into account St Thomas, Clarendon, St Mary, St Elizabeth, Manchester, Portland and St Ann – were disposed of, but the report did not indicate how the matters ended.
In Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland, where 339 cases were heard, 173 of them were disposed of, 96 of which ended in acquittals.
According toLlewellyn, the matters in the Gun Court are a reflection of a high witness intimidation climate and that very often the persons who are critical to these cases cannot be located.
She said prosecutors are often forced to offer no evidence after a case has been called up several times, due to the absence of witnesses.
"You have to balance the availability of witnesses with the absolute right of the accused to a fair trial or trial within a reasonable time," Llewellyn said.
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