Former Premier McKeeva Bush, who on Monday was acquitted of rape and indecent assault charges, is calling for a commission of inquiry into what he described as “persecution” of him by officials in Cayman.
Following the jury’s unanimous verdict, Bush, speaking to reporters outside court, said he intended to bring a motion to Parliament for a commission of inquiry to look into connections between the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Governor’s Office, the commissioner of police, other police officers and some senior civil servants.
He also plans to call a public meeting at 8pm on Thursday by A. L. Thompson’s, he said.
“It’s time for this persecution to stop,” Bush said.
On Monday, after deliberating for fewer than two hours, a jury of four women and three men found the 69-year-old West Bay West MP not guilty on charges of rape and indecent assault in relation to allegations dating back two decades.
A woman had accused the former Speaker of the House of raping her as she was driving him from a bar in George Town to his home in West Bay on an unspecified date sometime between 1999 and 2001.
As well as this trial, Bush has been prosecuted in Cayman a number of times over the past decade.
In 2014, he appeared before the court charged in connection with using a government credit card to gamble in casinos, and was acquitted. In 2020, he was convicted of common assault and disorderly conduct, after assaulting the female manager of a bar on Seven Mile Beach, and received a suspended sentence.
In February this year, Bush appeared before the Grand Court on trial for the alleged indecent assault of two female civil servants at a government function. That case collapsed after the judge ruled there had been an “abuse of process” by the prosecution in the case.
“This doesn’t just happen to McKeeva, you know,” Bush told reporters on Monday. “There are far too many cases by the DPP that, as far as I’m concerned, have not been [in line] with what is known as British common law.
“I see it as a bad situation in this country, it has to stop – the amount of cases we are losing, the amount of government money that is being spent.”
Motion for independent commission of inquiry
Outside court, Bush read out the motion he intends to bring to Parliament, which he says will be seconded by Bodden Town West MP Chris Saunders.
That motion states that there is “tremendous concern about corruption in the DPP’s office” due to some of the cases that have been ordered to be prosecuted. It claims there is “widespread alarm and grief” regarding the “wholly inappropriate and illegal connections” between the DPP’s office, the Governor’s Office and the commissioner of police “over the years”.
Bush’s motion also calls into question the “practices, processes and abuses” of some police officers.
In the motion, the veteran politician is asking that the government fund an independent commission of inquiry, whose findings would be submitted to the Office of the Premier.
Asked if Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly supported his motion, Bush said he had not spoken to her about it.
“I’m going to table the motion and then the House can do what they want with it, but I’m going to have my say on it and what my belief is,” he said. “Because it is time that this country should be treated right in the offices of justice in this country,” adding that he was not referring to the judiciary.
He called out former governors Duncan Taylor, Stuart Jack and Martyn Roper as being part of the “connections” he wants uncovered in the inquiry.
“We cannot go on believing we have British common law and all this abuse is taking place,” he said.
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