BRIDGETOWN, Barbados
A female police officer yesterday denied the claim by Jamaican Shanique Myrie that she was cavity searched on arrival in Barbados in March 2011.
Police Constable Sirphine Carrington was giving testimony on the final day of the Barbados leg of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) hearing into Myries's discrimination suit against the Barbados Government.
Under intense cross-examination by Myrie’s attorney Michelle A Brown, Carrington repeatedly denied that the 25-year-old first-time visitor to Barbados was ever taken to a bathroom at the Grantley Adams International Airport, stripped of her clothes, asked to bend over a toilet set, and had fingers inserted into her vagina.
“Did you take Shanique Myrie to a bathroom after interviewing her?” Brown asked.
“I never took Shanique Myrie to a bathroom,” Carrington responded.”
“I’m suggesting to you that you took her to the bathroom and asked her to strip,” Brown added.
“I never took Shanique Myrie to any bathroom so I could not have asked her to strip,” Carrington countered.
“I’m suggesting to you that you asked her to turn around and felt her breasts.”
“I never took her to the bathroom so I could not have done that,” Carrington testified.
“I’m suggesting to you that you told Shanique Myrie you were her worst nightmare.”
“I could not have told her that because I never took her to any bathroom,” the female constable of ten years told the CCJ.
“I’m suggesting to you that you told her in the bathroom all you f…… Jamaicans come here to do is steal men and bring drugs,” Brown said.
“I never told her that,” the female cop testified.
“I’m suggesting to you that you locked the bathroom door, and put on gloves and inserted your fingers in her private body parts
At this stage Justice Winston Anderson intervened asking Brown: “Are you sure you should continue with this line of questioning? The witness has said she didn’t take Miss Myrie to any bathroom, so why do you continue to suggest to her that she did things to Miss Myrie in the bathroom?”
Mr Justice Anderson then urged Brown to ask Carrington questions regarding all the claims made by Myrie in her original witness statement which had been admitted as evidence by the court.
Brown attempted to restart questioning along the same lines, and after two more denials by Carrington, she was urged by Mr Justice Rolston Nelson to revert to the line of questioning as suggested by Mr Justice Anderson.
Carrington in the early part of her evidence, said Myrie was interviewed in an upstairs office at the airport by her senior, Constable Everton Gittens.
The police officer told the court she did not ask the Jamaican any questions, and was there only because it is a rule that a policewoman must always be present if a female passenger is to be interviewed by police.
Carrington said the interview with Myrie in the upstairs room lasted about 15 minutes, and no threats were made by Constable Gittens to have the woman’s clearance cancelled if she did not assist with the investigation.
President of the CCJ Sir Dennis Byron stated that Carrington was called to provide testimony by the Court and not by lawyers from either side.
The final leg of the will be heard at the CCJ’s headquarters in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on April 8 and 9, where will lawyers for Myrie and the Government of Barbados will present their final arguments.
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