CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
A British police officer will be sentenced
on July 11, 2019 after he was
found guilty of raping an American student
in Antigua four years ago.
Metropolitan Constable Lee Martin-
Cramp was found guilty by a jury at Antigua’s
High Court recently after being
extradited to the island in what was
reported to be a legal victory for the
island.
The court heard that
the 26-year-old used
his job to get the victim
into trusting him
before carrying out
the “most deplorable”
attack while he was on vacation in Antigua
in May 2015.
The officer, who was attached to the
Met’s Merton borough, is suspended
from duties and will be subjected to
expedited misconduct proceedings, the
police force said.
Commander Catherine Roper, from
the Met’s Directorate of Professional
Standards, said Martin-Cramp had been
found futility of an “extremely serious”
offense.
According to the evidence, the British
officer reportedly met the victim,
an American student, on a dating app
Tinder. The court heard he went to her
apartment, where he allegedly out something
in her wine that made her pass out,
the Daily Mail reported.
Martin-Cramp was first arrested over
the rape in June 2016 by the Met’s Extradition
Unit.
Antiguan authorities had lodged an
extradition request which was heard at
the Westminster Magistrate’s Court and
granted in June 2018.
In September, he was extradited to
face trial in Antigua.
Barbados
The Barbados government has
approved five medicinal marijuana drugs
to be placed on the National Drug Formulary
and warned businesses already
selling the products they were infringing
the law.
Minister of Health and Wellness, Lt.
Col. Jeffrey Bostic said
the drugs, which will be
imported by the Barbados
Drug Services, had
been submitted by the
Drug Formulary Committee.
Speaking to participants at the training
seminar for healthcare providers
recently on Therapeutic Prescribing of
Medical Marijuana Products, Bostic said
he also wanted to make it clear that the
smoking of marijuana would not be part
of the process since there was no scientific
evidence to suggest that there were
benefits in terms of ailment.
The Drug Formulary Committee
made a strong recommendation on the
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
Tourists who have just disembarked from a cruise liner, tour the city aboard a vintage American convertible, in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday,
June 4, 2019. The Trump administration has imposed major new travel restrictions on visits to Cuba by U.S. citizens, banning
stops by cruise ships and ending a heavily used form of educational travel as it seeks to further isolate the communist government.
See story on Page 18. Associated Press / Ramon Espinosa
issue that was presented to Cabinet and
it was accepted that “we are going to stay
with that until any other information
is available to the ministry to suggest
otherwise.”
The minister said he had been made
aware that there were already selling the
products.
He said while the Ministry of Health
and Wellness was responsible for this
aspect of the project, the major part of
the project would be overseen by the
Ministry of Agriculture since it was government’s
intention to get involved in
every aspect, including cultivation, production,
marketing, research and development.
Caribbean
Cash-strapped regional airline, LIAT
will have to find US$1.55 million to pay
compensation to a dismissed employee
after a judge of the Supreme Court in
the United States Virgin Islands (USVI)
dismissed an appeal by the airline.
Justice Douglas A. Brady in his ruling
recently said that “the totality of the
trial evidence was sufficient to permit a
jury the inference that LIAT’s proffered
reasons were false” when it dismissed
William Cherubin.
Cherubin had taken the airline to
court in February claiming he had been
dismissed because of his age.
According to court documents, on
June 4, 2015, LIAT fired Cherubin, who
was then 70 years old, without notice,
Caribbean L 4 ife, June 7–13, 2019 BQ
citing several incidents involving violation
of company’s policy, including two
alleged incidents that occurred in 2009
and 2012.
The judge also noted
the airline, which is
owned by several Caribbean
governments had
“discharged Cherubin
because of his age and in violation of the
Virgin Islands Civil Rights Act.”
“The court will deny LIAT’s renewed
motion for judgment as a matter of law,”
Justice Brady said in his ruling.
Accordingly, he said, the court will not
interfere with the jury’s award and LIAT’s
motion for a new trial will be denied.
Dominica
Four Caribbean countries Antigua
and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia and
St. Kitts and Nevis have commenced
consultations toward
the development of a
National Safe School
Policy that will provide
the context for amending
existing legislation
to integrate disaster reduction and
environmental protection measures for
schools.
The consultations, with technical support
from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency
Management Agency (CDEMA)
through Environmental Solution Limited
(Jamaica) were recently held in Roseau,
Dominica.
The goal of the Model Safe School
Program (MSSP) in the Caribbean —
also known as the MSSP Project — is to
create safe, secure/protective and green
educational institutions from pre-primary
to tertiary levels, including public
and private institutions through the
development of simple, applicable and
adaptable tools.
The first-stage of policy consultations
was signed to garner stakeholder participation
and consensus building within
the national context.
The CDEMA Coordinating Unit has
received grant funding from the Caribbean
Development Bank (CDB) to the
tune of US$832,685 to implement the
Model Safe School Program in Antigua
and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, St.
Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent
and the Grenadines.
Jamaica
Jamaicans could face a possible jail
term as the National Water Commission
(NWC) issued a prohibition order making
it a prosecutable offence to waste
water or use excessive amounts of potable
water for non-essential purposes.
Jamaica, like several
other Caribbean countries,
is facing a severe
drought situation and
the NWC said the prohibition
order, which
went into effect recently, is aimed at deal-
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