Prisoner “frustrated” at wait

An inmate at Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds today claimed he was “lost” in the system after he was sentenced despite having a pending matter before the High Court.

“I served a sentence. It finished last year, February 6. I was in prison on the present matter since 2010,” Derrick Ward alias Bulldog, a labourer, from Melrose, St Thomas told Justice Randall Worrell today.

He continued: “I was in prison just lost. The court wasn’t sending for me. I was doing the sentence but the court never send back for me and although my sentence come and finish last year I never get through.

“Right now I kinda frustrated,” Ward said. He has a pending rape case before the High Court.

Attorney-at-law Angella Mitchell-Gittens explained to the court that Ward had gone on trial and was acquitted by a jury for a similar offence. However, the court adjourned the pending matter to be tried at a future date.

“He was acquitted and we were waiting . . . for a little time to pass . . . because you do not want two matters of a similar nature around the same time. That is my recollection,” the lawyer explained. Ward however was serving time at Dodds on another matter.

The accused who is in his early 50s added: “Right now I is a sick person . . . I getting down sir. I was here a very long time, I was in prison for a very long time. It is not that I wasn’t trying sir, I duh trying so hard to get before the court, I duh trying my best sir and I was in prison lost. . . and I ain’t hear nothing.”

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale addressed the matter which was held via Zoom.

“ . . . Mr Ward it is never the intention of the Crown to wait until people serve their sentences to add more to them unless their specifically want to go a certain course.

“It is never the Crown’s position to try to get consecutive sentences . . . by waiting, by ambush or by trickery, or by waiting till someone finishes their sentence then to add more,” Seale said before asking for an adjournment until Friday August 21 to look into the matter.