Magistrate slams delays over missing police case files

Acting Chief Magistrate Douglas Frederick has chided the police for failing to produce case files, warning that the justice system cannot function properly without them.

Frederick expressed his concern on Thursday in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court after police prosecutor Reginald Blackman informed the court that files had not yet been produced by investigating officers in several cases.

As a result, a number of cases were adjourned until later this year. Frederick said: “We have to give longer dates of adjournments because people keep coming and there are no files and I am just adjourning all the time and it is the same thing over and over.

“So you may as well give the persons a longer date because it is frustrating to bring a whole courtroom of people and it is a stuck record of ‘no file, no file, no file’ all the time.”

“I came here to work,” said the acting chief magistrate. “You all people making sport. Why bring a whole courtroom of people when you know that you don’t have these files?” 

Moments later, interns and staff members of the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit arrived at the court, where Frederick urged them to investigate the problem and propose possible solutions to the longstanding issue.

He said: “In Barbados, we have one of the best police forces in the world. If a crime happens tomorrow, within a week, they will hold the person, or they will have somebody assisting the police, but the problem that we have is to get the files.”

The repeated absence of case files was frustrating not only for the court but also for the accused who are required to attend proceedings, he added.

“Today, the prosecution would have gotten up and would have said: ‘We have no file. We have no file.’ And if you look at the dates of the matter, you will see that it is a little frustrating to people coming and they don’t have the files.”

Frederick said he had raised concerns about the issue for years and stressed that the court could not function properly without the necessary documentation.

“As I said, I come to work. To work. I cannot work without the files, and I have been saying that for years, and I would like it to be improved so that we can get the system running and working properly.”

He encouraged the researchers to see the problem as an opportunity to help improve the justice system.

“So maybe you as youngsters within the unit will be able to find a solution. Hopefully this is the first step. Do your research and your planning and give suggestions and we hope for the best.”

(JB)