Eye on victims

A High Court judge has called for victims to be more involved in Barbados’ criminal justice system.

This suggestion has come from Justice Randall Worrell, who has contended that victims are not always treated fairly.

He said there may be the need for the establishment of a victims’ Injuries Compensation Board, as well as witness protection in some cases.

Justice Worrell made the comments while speaking at the launch last night of Kim Ramsay’s latest book Murders That Shocked Barbados at the Supreme Court.

“Even now we still have to do better. We don’t only have to do better in relation to crime solving, problem solving, we also have to do better in relation to victims…the relatives of those people, we have to think about those persons who Kim calls co-victims and who we see everyday,” he said.

“The question is what are we really doing for them? Where is our victims’ injuries compensation board? Of course you’re not going to get that in relation to murder, but if you start somewhere and you involve co-victims in the process, I think it may be easier to explain to them at a later stage why a particular person has not been caught and they might also be able to emphatize with the Royal Barbados Police Force and say, ‘We understand the reason, we understand the situation’.”

The judge said there had also been occasions when victims and their families were not made aware of what was going on in their cases.

He lamented that some victims sometimes only found out about what was going on through the media.

“It is also about our criminal justice system and how we treat accused persons, more importantly how do we treat the victims and why do we not bring them more into the criminal justice system so that they know when the case is called and what is happening.

“Some of them you will see in the newspaper saying, ‘I only know about this after I see the man get sentenced’,” Justice Worrell said.

He also spoke about the recent trend where a lack of assistance from communities was preventing police from apprehending criminals.

The judge recalled that during murderer Lester ‘Toffee’ Harewood’s year-long run from the law, police were continually being fed information related to his location.

“Whereas the public at that time was willing to assist the police at every juncture, remember it took a year for Toffee to be caught, but at every sighting the public fed information to the Royal Barbados Police Force.

Justice Worrell suggested that with a growing reluctance among witnesses to come forward, Government may have to consider the introduction of witness protection.

Meanwhile, Acting Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce urged persons who had any information related to crimes to come forward.

“If you see something, say something,” Boyce encouraged.

The senior cop explained that police investigations were difficult and cooperation at the community level was critical if police were to be successful in solving crimes.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb