471 / 494
470
residences and could have been kept out of the way of Scenes of Crime
officers. To have delayed establishment of Scenes of Crime until
4 June, gives incontrovertible support to Mr. Witter’s evidence that
crime scenes were not established “with alacrity”. It is an indictment
on the professionalism of the JCF. The JCF had an obligation to
demarcate locations where bodies were found or allegations made of
killings as a necessary and inescapable incident of the investigating
process. Even after ACP Blake visited Tivoli Gardens on 26 May, he saw
three bodies in a house and instructed Supt. Michael Phipps “to get the
Scenes of Crime persons to do the photographing”. Thus, a very senior
police officer was of the opinion that on 26 May, the conditions in Tivoli
Gardens were such as to permit investigations to commence.
14.138.
As Head of BSI at the time, ACP Granville Gause should
have been held accountable for the long delay in having crime scenes
established. It matters not whether a crime was committed. Human
lives were lost. They deserved prompt investigation into the
circumstances of the loss of life. A delay of 10 days before
commencement of investigations conduced to the absence or
disappearance of vital evidence that could and should have been
available to this Commission of Enquiry and to the courts of law of
Jamaica.
14.139.
In Chapter 10, we have previously criticised the conduct of
DSP Tabannah in failing to ensure that proper records of the locations
of dead bodies were made available, and could be retrieved.
DSP Tabannah had a duty to ensure that notes allegedly made by Cons.
Maxwell were retrieved and the information contained therein,
properly entered in the relevant books or diaries. Although
Cons. Maxwell unfortunately died in October 2010, there can be no
excuse for not having him enter the information in the proper