The court had heard that in September 2008, the complainant reported that money was collected by Thomas on behalf of Reid. An investigation resulted in both men being charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act.

Their lawyers were however able to convince the court that the crown failed to fully establish a prima facie case against their clients. This was upheld by Resident Magistrate Ann-Marie Nembhard.

The complainant was allegedly robbed of his cellular phone and $3,570 cash at gunpoint last year, by two men (one of whom had a gun) who pulled up beside him in a marked police service vehicle. An observant witness had noted the license number of the vehicle, and Taylor was subsequently arrested the following day.

Both had been charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, following a sting operation in St. Ann in March 2008 where it was alleged that money was paid for a larceny case against the complainant to be dropped. The no-case submissions outlined that the complainant had claimed it was Morgan who was held during a sting operation while the policemen confirmed that they held his son. The no-case submissions were upheld by the Resident Magistrate, and the two accused were freed.

The Resident Magistrate also ordered that the two policemen who were responsible for receiving the obviously flawed statement from the complainant, be transferred from the parish of St. Ann.

Givans was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm following an incident at the Mountain View Police Station in February 2005 where a motorist accused Givans of kicking him in the face. Givans had claimed that it was another policeman who had actually assaulted the motorist, and even provided the policeman’s name and badge number. However, when the case was being tried in 2008, the motorist (while he was in the dock ) pointed out Givans as being the man who assaulted him. Givans was eventually found guilty and convicted.

He then appealed on grounds that the dock identification was flawed, because it was three years after the alleged incident that he was actually pointed out in court. The Court of Appeal, comprising Justices Howard Cooke, Hazel Harris and Dennis Morrison, upheld the submissions yesterday and quashed the conviction.

It was a jury trial, and they retired for an hour before finding him not guilty of the charges.

It was alleged that sometime in 2004, the policeman sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl. The girl, who is now 16 years, had testified during the trial, relating her ordeal to the jury. When cross-examined by the policeman’s defence lawyer however, the girl admitted that on several occasions she had told lies. She said though, that she was speaking the truth in relation to this incident.

Bentley, in his defence, said he was innocent of the charges. The charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice arose when it was alleged that he took the girl to another parish in an effort to prevent her from attending court.