An American tourist has been freed from prison after a Grand Court judge quashed his conviction for importing the deadly drug fentanyl to the Cayman Islands.
Adrian Frederick Scales, 28, had been convicted in August 2023 of importing a trace amount – 0.09 grams – of fentanyl in powder form into the Cayman Islands, and was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison in February last year. He had been the first person to be jailed in Cayman for importing the opioid painkiller.
Scales had denied any knowledge of the drug, stating at trial that, before he went to Cayman, he had lent his bag to another person.
He had been travelling to Cayman as a tourist on 4 Oct. 2022, when, upon arrival at Owen Roberts International Airport, the drug was found in his backpack and he was arrested.
Represented by lawyer Jonathan Hughes, Scales appealed the conviction, and on Monday, 9 June, Justice Emma Peters allowed his appeal and quashed the conviction.
Reporting restrictions, which were put in place while the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions decided if another trial should be held, were lifted on Friday after the Crown informed the judge it did not intend to prosecute further.
This was the second time Scales’ conviction had been quashed. His conviction from an earlier trial had been successfully appealed, and he was tried and convicted a second time before Magistrate Philippa McFarlane in 2023.
In outlining her reasons for overturning the conviction, Peters said McFarlane, in that second trial, had misdirected herself regarding the burden of proof in the case when she determined there had been insufficient evidence presented regarding Scales’ claim that he had no knowledge of the drug in his bag.
“The learned magistrate described the evidence given by the appellant as ‘no more than a repeated denial’,” Peters said.
Summary Court cases do not involve juries, so magistrates are required to direct themselves, as they would a jury, in points of law and fact in certain cases.
The judge said there had been an error as to the “fundamental issue of the burden and standard of proof – knowledge – which, in this case, was the only matter at issue”.
She added, “That being my conclusion, I rule that such an error, relating to the burden and standard of proof on such a central issue, must be fatal to the conviction. And accordingly, I conclude that counsel for the appellant is correct when he characterises the resultant conviction as unsafe and unsatisfactory.”
On Monday, she released Scales from custody and granted him bail, pending a decision on Friday by the Crown on whether to retry the case. On Friday, she lifted all bail restrictions on him.
Related Videos
