Former Premier McKeeva Bush was found not guilty of indecent assault in Grand Court on Friday morning, 5 Sept., after the Crown prosecution confirmed it would not be pursuing the case against him.
Bush had been accused of assaulting two female civil servants at a government-hosted reception at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman in September 2022.
Senior prosecutor Scott Wainwright informed Justice Emma Peters that given the Crown’s “ongoing duty of review, we do not consider that it is any longer in the public interest to pursue this matter to a second trial”.
He said the Crown was offering no evidence on the charges.
Peters then declared she was finding Bush not guilty on the two charges of indecent assault, and also on two alternative charges of common assault.
Bush, who is also a former speaker of Parliament, underwent a trial on the charges last year. However, that trial was halted before the jury was asked to deliver a verdict, when Grand Court Justice Stanley John declared there had been an “abuse of process”. The judge, in a later written ruling, admitted he had erred in halting the entire trial, stating he should only have abandoned the case in relation to one of the alleged victims.
The Crown appealed John’s decision to the Court of Appeal and in July was granted leave to hold a retrial.
Last month, the case returned to the court before Justice Peters, who gave the Crown two weeks to determine if it wished to move ahead with the case.
Bush said he would be making a public statement on the decision at a later time.
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