McKeeva Bush’s defence team on Wednesday attempted to cast doubt on the indecent assault accusations made against him in his trial, noting that one of the complainants is seen on video putting her arm around him and rubbing his back immediately after he allegedly assaulted her.
Sallie Bennett-Jenkins, KC, Bush’s attorney, during her cross-examination of Detective Sergeant Russell These of the RCIPS’s Major Incident Room about certain elements of the CCTV video clips the jurors had been shown on Tuesday, reshowed them footage of the encounter between the former premier and the first complainant.
She froze the video at the exact point at which the alleged assault occurred – where Bush appears to kiss her shoulder – and then played what happened directly afterwards, noting that the woman appears to place her hand on Bush’s shoulder and then briefly rub his back.
“Is there any particular reason why the police did not include a photographic still [of the complainant], seconds after she alleges indecent assault, of her hugging Mr. Bush and rubbing his back?” she asked.
The jurors had been supplied with individual photographic stills extracted from the video, which had been compiled with These.
The police officer told Bennett-Jenkins that he had been specifically tasked with tracking Bush’s movements, which were caught on the CCTV system of The Ritz-Carlton hotel on night of 13 Sept. 2022, at a cocktail reception which was part of a regional tourism conference.
From one hour and 15 minutes of video footage, These had extracted short video clips and stills, which were included in a “storyboard” that was made available to the jurors and the court.
These said he had not been told by investigating officers who had made the complaints against Bush, and his task had been to document any incidents he saw on the video of physical contact between Bush and women at the event.
Asked why he had selected only certain images for the still photographs, These responded that if he had done so for every physical interaction Bush had had at the event, there would have been hundreds of photographs.
“If I were to put in all the times he had physical contact with somebody, the storyboard would have been 500 pages. So, I have to pick and choose. It’s not an act of hiding anything, because we have the continuous video to show his movements,” These said.
Bennett-Jenkins agreed with this, stating that Bush is seen greeting many people at the cocktail reception – shaking hands, hugging or kissing them.
Addressing a scene in which Bush places his arm around the first complainant’s shoulder shortly before the alleged assault, the defence lawyer suggested that this was when the former premier and the complainant, who is a government employee, posed for a photograph together. A member of the Protocol Office, who was standing nearby, appeared to take the photo, Bennett-Jenkins said.
Defence: Husband was out of line of sight
She also directed the jurors to two other pieces of footage – the first showing Bush’s interaction with the first complainant shortly after arriving at the reception, when he allegedly assaulted her, and the second showing the complainant’s husband, which was captured on a different camera.
The court had heard from Crown prosecutor Charles Miskin in his opening statement on Monday that Bush had told the woman, “OK, see your husband over there? If he saw me doing this, he would not like it,’ and then kissed her on the shoulder.
Bennett-Jenkins pointed out to jurors that the video footage shows the woman’s husband at the far end of the ballroom lobby at that time. She noted he was standing about 100 feet away and he would have been obscured from his wife’s and Bush’s lines of sight by a protruding wall.
Confirming with These that the video contained no audio, she said the footage shows a large number of people at the reception, so there was likely to be a lot of “cocktail party din”, potentially necessitating attendees to lean close to one another to hear properly.
Video footage was also shown of the second complainant, though she does not appear in any of the clips in the presence of Bush. The prosecution allege that this woman was assaulted in a camera blind spot, by the bar area of the reception.
The video shows a number of people on the periphery of this area, and shows the second complainant moving in and out of that camera blind spot. Miskin had told jurors on Monday that Bush had left a love bite, with apparent teeth indentations, on this woman’s arm when she encountered him at that point in the video.
Bush faces two counts of indecent assault, and two alternate charges of common assault.
He has denied all charges.
The case continues.
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