The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Monroe says there is always concern when people on bail are victims of murder.

His comments came in the aftermath of the murder of a man on bail who was gunned down on Sunday at the A F Adderley Junior High School. The victim, Randy Williams, 29, was on bail for rape and burglary and was being electronically monitored.

In March Franklyn Glinton, who was charged with the 2020 killing of 17-year-old Lavard McKenzie was shot and later died in hospital. Glinton and his co-accused were granted bail months after their arraignments.

And in May, while he was not on bail, but on the prison’s work release scheme, Timothy Saunders was shot to death at Rubis Gas Station on Mackey and Madeira Streets.

Asked if there is any concern, Mr Monroe answered: “There’s always a concern when you have a class of persons who are the subject of homicide and the police do their investigations and you have to balance it. If you find somebody for instance who is on bail for a homicide who’s involved, or said to be involved, in gang activity, the death may be as a result of the matter that they’re before the court for or it might be the result of their lifestyle adopted.

“You have to be concerned about it in any event. Bail can be refused for the person's own protection but you often find that people when confronted with ‘you ought to be kept in custody for your protection’ they prefer not to be in custody. And if they insist on being released on bail, they make the requirement to being released on bail then the courts will release them and then sometimes consequences flow.”

As for addressing the challenge of people released on bail being killed, he noted it is the same way all murders are addressed.

“Bad actors will act badly,” he said. “The police have adopted tactics that Deputy Commissioner Fernander would have advised of saturation patrol they do when you’re released from bail. There’s a division of the police force that notifies the divisions so that they can have an eye out for and apart from that, vigilance is the best that can happen.

“But if a person chooses to go around killing people, they will do it and the challenge is to prevent them from wanting to do that. And when they do it, to effectively catch them, put them before the court, and subject them to judgement.”

He said the law says that one is presumed innocent and so because one is presumed innocent they cannot be punished before being found guilty.

“We’ve tried and politician after politician have sought to fool the public by passing laws that they know couldn’t stand constitutional scrutiny. Remember we had laws that say you couldn’t get bail for this and you couldn’t get bail for that. I’m persuaded that at the time those laws were passed, the people passing them were well aware that although they would do that to placate the public, they didn’t have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving. So, it’s pointless to tell the public things just to bring comfort to you.”

The Freetown MP added: “The purpose of bail is to make sure that you don’t abscond if you offend while on bail. There was a case of somebody who was on bail who was monitored by an ankle bracelet who then committed an armed robbery. The monitoring company advised the police. They were able to apprehend him with the stolen property. Well he will be denied bail because another object of bail is to prevent from reoffending while on bail.”