THE Police Service, under the watch of acting Police Commissioner Junior Benjamin, is committed to ensuring a thorough investigation into allegations that a senior investigator on the team probing Erla Harewood-Christopher once tried to pervert the course of justice.
Contacted for comment yesterday on the Sunday Express lead story headlined “Senior cop accused of justice obstruction”, Benjamin said, “I’m only one day into this position and I am unable to speak to all that was being alluded to in that article.”
He added, “The Police Service under my watch is committed to ensuring as it relates to this investigation to this particular matter that we follow the proper protocol. There is a protocol where we will be advised by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and, based on that advice, we will follow instructions as there must be procedural fairness in terms of what we do.”
He explained that this is to ensure that the evidence gathered in the investigations holds up in court.
Asked how the investigation into suspended police commissioner Harewood-Christopher was proceeding, Benjamin said he would not be able to speak on the ongoing investigation, but added that it remained “very much active”.
“We are continuing to follow instructions and advice of the DPP in that matter and, based on the advice of the DPP, we do what we have to do. We are totally confident that the DPP will give us the competent advice and ensure that the probe will be a fair one,” he said.
Harewood-Christopher was arrested on January 30 in connection with the importation of two sniper riffles which were sent to the Strategic Services Agency (SSA). She was questioned and released without charge on Saturday, February 1.
The TTPS investigative team has approached the DPP for advice on at least three occasions, but each time was advised to return with more evidence.
Background
The officer who made the complaint, Sgt Sean Haywood, expressed deep concern over the manner in which this senior investigator handled two firearm-related investigations. The senior officer was at the time a member of the police Professional Standards Bureau.
Serious allegations of attempts to pervert the course of justice were made against the officer in a report by Haywood to Deputy Commissioner of Police Intelligence and Investigations Curt Simon, which was also sent to the Commissioner of Police (Harewood-Christopher) for onward transmission to the Minister of National Security, Fitzgerald Hinds.
It was copied to the head of the National Security Council and Police Complaints Authority (PCA).
Haywood alleged the senior investigator attempted to pervert the course of justice, exhibited bias, lacked transparency and accountability, stymied certain investigations, and acted contrary to the advice of the DPP when the officer allegedly instructed him to alter an exhibit “to dismantle a firearm, remove a part of the said firearm seized and hand over the firearm evidence back to the suspect”, which, Haywood said, was contrary to the advice of the DPP.
