A police officer on Tuesday denied she had misused the service’s records system to gather ammunition for use against a female prison officer love rival in a battle over another member of prison staff.
Earl Pinnock, for the Crown, told the Grand Court that that the case against Sergeant Keren Watson was all about “public trust” and that she had acted “out of spite motivated by jealousy”.
He added, “It’s about the trust we place in our police service. Specifically, it’s about how Keren Watson breached that trust.
“In this case, we, the prosecution, allege that, as a police officer, she misconducted herself… we say that she wilfully misconducted herself as police officer.”
It is alleged Watson used the police records system on several occasions to gather information against a female prison officer in a bid to damage her reputation and win the affections of a male prison officer.
Watson has pleaded not guilty to a charge of misconduct in public office, alleged to have been carried out between 2019-20.
Pinnock, a barrister from the UK, told the court that Watson had used the service’s Records Management System (RMS) several times to dig into the woman’s background “without any reasonable excuse”.
He explained that every call and every in-person report to police led to the generation of a file on the electronic system, which contained personal details of the complaint and of those involved, as well as details of the case.
Pinnock added, “If any officer accesses the RMS and uses information taken from it, it must only be used for for a policing purpose.”
He said that the victim had become aware that information that could only have come from the police computer system had become common knowledge and was being discussed by people who could not have obtained such details.
The court also heard that the female prison officer, who knew Watson from their days in their homeland of Jamaica and had become reacquainted in Cayman, had found a piece of paper with her name on it in the man’s home and called her asking to meet for a talk.
The two met at Watson’s home and Pinnock said that the other woman “simply wanted to know where she stood”.
Pinnock said she told Watson she had been in “an intimate relationship” with the man.
He added that Watson had told her at first that she and the man were “just friends” but that it became apparent that the two were lovers.
Pinnock said that Watson had harassed the woman by calling her several times to discuss the man and that the victim had wanted to contact police, but the male prison officer had persuaded her not to.
He told the court that Watson had also told a contact at Digicel she needed information on phone numbers used by the two prison officers and calls made to each other to compile a police report, which was supplied.
Pinnock added that the woman had eventually made a complaint to the Ombudsman after she realised that Watson must have obtained details of phone calls between her and the man and asked a police officer friend for advice.
Later investigations by police found Watson’s electronic fingerprints on files that contained information on the woman as a complainant and as someone against whom a complaint had been made.
Investigators also linked a phone number in Watson’s calls to her Digicel contact.
The female victim rejected the suggestion that she had had affairs with other colleagues at the prison under cross-examination by defence counsel Amelia Fosuhene.
The 20-year veteran of the prison service told Fosuhene that she had had a relationship with one other officer at Northward jail besides the man at the centre of the love triangle.
But she denied there had been “at least another four” affairs.
She also rejected a suggestion that her extra-marital love life had “become an issue” with her husband, from whom she is now divorced, and that her behaviour had led to complaints about her conduct at work from staff and inmates.
The woman refused under cross-questioning on the second day of the trial to give the names of people who she said had ridiculed her after the details of the phone calls had come to light, or the person who had told her to take the issue to the Ombudsman, saying that she didn’t “want to be under unnecessary pressure at work”.
During his questioning, the male prison officer admitted that he had been in a relationship with both women at the same time, and said that Watson had been “very jealous” of the female prison officer because of that. He also admitted to seeing other women at the same time, saying “My behaviour wasn’t correct.”
He added that he had no direct knowledge of Watson accessing the police database, but he had had his suspicions after Watson mentioned details which would have come from a police file.
The trial, in front of Justice Cheryll Richards, KC, continues.
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