Lawyers seek transparency in how clients are treated while in police custody

The integrity of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) is once again being called into question in the wake of two serious incidents in which one man died and a woman alleged she was injured whilst in the custody of officers.

Twenty-four hours after lawmen confirmed that 43-year-old Colin Greene had died of unnatural causes in a holding cell at the Holetown Police Station, lawyer Sally Comissiong, who represented Greene up until he passed away, cited “big red flags” on the part of the force, as she called for an inquest into the circumstances of his death.

Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, another senior lawyer, raised questions on a number of instances where transparency has been called into question surrounding what happens to suspects while in police stations.

The prominent criminal lawyer is investigating claims where Makiziwe Steele, a 30-year-old woman, said she was beaten twice in 24 hours at the Black Rock Police Station in circumstances where the investigating officer in the case surrounding a lovers’ quarrel, was a relative of the man with whom she had been intimately involved.

Pilgrim told Barbados TODAY in an interview on Tuesday that he was becoming worried about an increasing trend of police holding suspects in custody for extended periods with little evidence to lay charges, in hopes that after seven or eight days, the detainee would confess. More concerning, is the apparent lack of care for the wellbeing of suspects, while in police care, especially in the wake of a COVID-19 crisis, that is allowing suspects to be held even longer, without access to their loved ones, and at times their attorneys.

“What I would like to see come out of these things is transparency and that we know what happens to a person when they go into a police station,” Pilgrim told Barbados TODAY.

“We really need to feel like the police can guarantee the safety of persons in their custody, and that anyone who goes into their custody, will come out of it the same way that they went in. I think we will have to rely heavily on video to ensure that you can show how a person was throughout their time at a station,” the lawyer suggested.

His client, Ms Steele, claimed that throughout an extended stint at the Black Rock Police Station that included 24-hours of alleged mistreatment that included blunt force trauma to the abdomen, she was subjected to verbal assaults from her former lover’s relative, who is also a police officer.

“I think the onus is on the police now to show that none of this is true and there are certain things that should be easy for them to prove. They should come out and say ‘this is not true, there was no connection to Ms Steele or to the boyfriend,’” Pilgrim contended.

“You want to feel like you’re being investigated by impartial investigators protecting and serving the community, and not because of some bias, somebody picks you up and calls you a p—- s–t. Not because somebody knows that they are related to or friends with a police officer, should you receive some sort of different treatment. You have to be very wary of that type of thing,” the attorney declared.

He said the situation had become so serious, that another one of his clients, upon learning that he was being transferred to the District ‘E’ Police Station, decided to severely harm himself to avoid the station at Speightstown, St Peter, which is apparently feared by Barbadians.

“He decided to harm himself severely by beating his face against the bars, so that it would be unlikely that any further harm would come to him and that he would probably be taken to the police doctor,” said Pilgrim.

Meanwhile, Attorney Comissiong called for an inquiry into the death of her former client Greene, who was found hanging at the Holetown station, after almost two weeks in COVID-19 isolation at the Savannah Hotel.

Of particular concern is the fact that there was a bandage around his head that appeared to be soaked with blood. There are also questions about the circumstances under which Greene, at some point, was transferred from the Hastings Police to a healthcare facility for an electrocardiogram (ECG).

“There are big red flags. If he wanted to commit suicide, he didn’t have to leave the Savannah Hotel. He could have done it there,” Comissiong argued.

“He had been cleared from quarantine, then he goes to the police station and then from there he has to go for an ECG and from an ECG to Holetown and then he commits suicide? There are red flags.

“We obviously have to write to the Commissioner of Police and we have to ask for an inquest and there will need to have an independent doctor present at the postmortem and then eventually have an inquest,” the lawyer added.

Meanwhile, Pilgrim has vowed to take the matter involving his client to the police and the office of professional responsibility, before commencing private prosecution against the officers allegedly responsible.

On Monday, lawmen said they were investigating Greene’s death. They are yet to respond to Steele’s claims.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb