Cayman’s prison service will evaluate whether a senior officer cleared of smuggling drugs into a prison should return to his job.
A spokesman for HM Cayman Islands Prison Service said it acknowledged that Derron Watson had been cleared of misconduct in public office by a Grand Court jury last week.
He added, “The prison service can confirm that any decisions about Mr. Watson’s continued role will be guided by internal policies, legal counsel and our ongoing commitment to maintaining public trust and institutional integrity.
“We will not make further comment at this time.”
The service spoke out after Watson, identified during the trial as a high-flyer and potential future director of the service, said, following the verdict, that he wanted to return to his managerial post.
Watson, 51, told the Compass outside the court last Friday, “This is a vindication for me and my family and I just want to get on with my life.”
He was speaking minutes after the jury accepted he had only taken the drugs into the prison after an unknown gunman held a gun to his head in his garden.
Watson said the man, who was masked, had threatened his life and the lives of his family unless he delivered 55 grams of the drug to prison inmate Tareek Ricketts and that he had acted under duress.
He added, “I did nothing wrong and I want my job. My interest was the prison service and becoming the director of prisons. I still want that.”
Watson earlier told the court the gunman had appeared as he worked in his garden on 27 Feb. last year. He took the drugs into the prison the next day.
He added last Friday, “There is a gunman out there and the police have not done enough to catch him.”
Watson, who has been suspended on full pay since the incident, said, “How do I feel? For 15 months my life has been a living hell. I want to get back to work.”
Justice Emma Peters said after the verdict was announced that the service might want to consider if it was “relevant” that Watson resume his career as he had expressed “disdain” for “his peers and the prison service” in his evidence.
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