A man described as the pioneer of education programmes in Cayman’s prison system faced court last week over allegation he stole almost $3,700 from inmates and their families that was meant to pay for educational courses for the prisoners.
Adam John McIntyre, the prison services’ former educational coordinator, has pleaded not guilty to nine counts each of theft and abuse of office.
In formal pleadings placed before the court, both parties agree McIntyre received money from inmates and their families for educational courses and put the money in his credit card account.
In many instances McIntyre paid for the courses using his credit card, but in other cases the course fees were either unpaid or not paid in full. Crown Counsel John Masters said the issue in the trial was whether McIntyre intended to permanently deprive the prisoners of their money.
‘In some instances, he sat on the money for years … or for a considerable amount of time,’ Mr. Masters told the Grand Court. ‘To this day the defendant has still not paid the course provider or completely repaid the inmates.
‘It is the Crown’s case that the funds were never by law held in trust or an escrow account.’
Mr. Masters said some of the inmates were unable to complete courses they had signed up for because McIntyre had not paid the course providers.
Former inmate Duane Cranston told the court he signed up for a correspondence course in mechanics in 2003, and authorised the withdrawal of $460 from his prison savings account, but he never received the course materials.
That money had been saved from full-time prison work, which pays $15 per week, he explained.
He said it wasn’t until June 2005 – after McIntyre had been suspended over the allegations – that he got the money back, after McIntyre took him to a George Town bank and gave him the money.
Prison administrators have also appeared as witnesses in the case. Deputy Commissioner of Prisons, Daniel Grieves, said he considered McIntyre the pioneer of education services in Cayman’s prisons, and, before creating and taking formal responsibility for education programs, had taught inmates in his spare time.
‘You can’t take anything away from the effort he put into the education programs,’ he said.
Mr. Grieves explained the education department had been given a lot of autonomy when McIntyre was in charge and he had never discussed with him how courses were to be paid for. Mr. Grieves said he assumed McIntyre paid by bank draft, and, to his knowledge, no one had authorised the defendant to pay with his credit card.
Dwight Scott, the current Director of Northward Prison, told the court Friday that when he first approached McIntyre in early 2005 about the allegations, McIntyre had said he could go get the money from his credit card. He told McIntyre to report back when he had the money, but McIntyre never brought the money to him, he said.
Mr. Scott said the defendant had never asked for permission to use his credit card to pay for courses, and, had he, it would not have been allowed.
The Crown is expected to conclude its case Monday with the defence case, presented by Howard Hamilton QC, to follow. Justice Priya Levers said she hopes to deliver a verdict in the case by the end of this week.
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