Director of Public Prosecutions Simon Davis says his office will appeal Justice Stanley John’s decision to halt an indecent assault trial in February this year involving former Premier McKeeva Bush.
The judge’s ruling was publicly revealed in full on Wednesday, following a five-month embargo. In it, John stated that he had made an error when he stopped the entire trial, saying he should only have ordered that two of the four charges against Bush be dropped.
Davis, in a brief statement in response to queries from the Cayman Compass, on Thursday said, “In April 2024, the DPP considered the full judgment of Stanley John J and submitted a Notice of Appeal in respect of his decisions.”
The publication of John’s full judgment was delayed so that it would not prejudice another trial in which Bush was charged with rape and indecent assault. That trial began earlier this month and culminated in a jury, after deliberating for fewer than two hours, unanimously finding the veteran politician not guilty of the alleged two-decade-old rape .
In a brief ruling that was issued back in February in connection to the earlier case, John had directed that all the proceedings be dropped. However, in his full judgment, he said, “On reflection, I have concluded that I was wrong to stay the entire case, and that the order of the court should reflect that only counts two and four should be stayed.”
In that case, Bush had been charged with two counts of indecent assault and two counts of common assault in relation to events that occurred at a government-hosted cocktail party at The Ritz-Carlton in September 2022. Counts two and four referred to the alleged offences against a woman who had told police she did not want pursue any legal action over Bush’s actions that night.
Bush has claimed that the cases being brought by the DPP’s office are part of a vendetta against him by authorities.
The veteran politician says he plans to bring a motion to Parliament calling for a commission of inquiry into what he describes as “inappropriate” connections between the DPP’s office, the Governor’s Office and the Commissioner of Police, and certain police officers and civil servants.
Speaking to reporters outside court on Monday, 15 July, after a jury unanimously found him not guilty of rape and indecent assault, said, “It’s time for this persecution to stop.”
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