Jury selection in the rape trial of West Bay West MP and former premier McKeeva Bush was delayed for another day on Monday while the court discussed “administrative” issues.
Potential jurors have attended the Grand Court twice – on Friday and again on Monday – for jury selection but have been sent home both times while discussions between counsel and the judge were heard in their absence.
On Monday, scores of jurors arrived for what was scheduled as a 10am start, and were sent away until 2pm. Then they were asked to wait in the hall outside the courtroom, before being called back into court around 3:30pm to be told they would be contacted about returning to the court on Tuesday.
Justice Roy James, a visiting judge who has served in Jamaica and the Bahamas, has been appointed to hear the case. He apologised to the jurors for the delay, informing them that this was due to “administrative” issues that needed to be discussed before the trial could commence.
On Friday, Justice Cheryll Richards denied an application by Bush’s defence lawyer Dennis Brady to put off the trial until July, so that a female King’s Counsel could take on Bush’s defence.
Brady had argued that his client should be given the opportunity to have “equal arms”, as the prosecution has flown in British barrister Eloise Marshall.
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