THE NEW TODAY is calling for Grenada’s fullest co-operation with Scotland Yard to bring closure into the investigation surrounding the death of Andrew Frederick of Lance Aux Epines.
It appears to us that the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) did not seem to do a proper and thorough investigation into the discovery of the body at a private home in the south of the island.
It is our strongly held view that personality clashes and differences resulted in what appears to be a case of under-par performance by the lawmen.
It is clear from Day One that the Police reached certain conclusions on the death based on information allegedly in their possession about Andrew.
The information in our possession points in the direction of certain elements within the Police High Command becoming upset with a visit to the Crime Scene by a retired former High Command Member along with Professor Hubert Daisley who was brought in from Trinidad to conduct a private autopsy on the behalf of the Family.
The situation reached a head when directives were given to the Head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to abort a planned visit to the Crime Scene along with the retired High Command member who for years was used by the Police as their forensic specialist.
The RGPF took the view that the retired Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) should not have gone to the Crime Scene without the presence of Police there with him.
The Commissioner of Police released a statement denying that anyone within their ranks had contacted the retired senior officer to revisit the Crime scene in order to try and discredit the report put out by THE NEW TODAY.
However, the paper was able to provide proof of the contacts made by the Head of the CID and the retired ACP on the issue.
It should be noted that Commissioner of Police Randy Connaught did not retract the misleading statement and when approached to issue an apology to the paper, it was met with the following response from him: “No Comment”.
It was a mistake to call off the visit to the Crime Scene as the retired ACP would have shown the CID Head some of his findings which would have put a new light on the investigation.
THE NEW TODAY is giving full support to the decision reached by the Coroner in England for Scotland Yard to get involved in the investigation into the Lance Epines death.
Grenada should allow the Yardees to come in and do their own investigation to help bring closure to the case.
If the island refuses then it raises the question of who is trying to block Scotland Yard and for what reason?
The family members are claiming that a certain member of the Police Force indicated to them that the lawmen will go along with the conclusion reached by Professor Daisley with his autopsy and when it was revealed that it was a case of murder the officer started to back peddle.
This officer allegedly approached Professor Daisley to try and convince him that Andrew had been running, fell to the ground and hit his head which caused the death.
RGPF also missed “the ball” in the investigation with Professor Daisley who has done so many autopsies in the past at their request.
If the autopsy conducted for the Police concluded that the death was “accidental” then the Police Force should have asked the two Pathologists to have a meeting among themselves to arrive at a cause of death.
This approach has been done in the past by RGPF with the same Professor Daisley.
A Government Pathologist had concluded that there was foul play when a body was discovered hanging in St Andrew.
CID detectives were not convinced that it was a murder and the then Commissioner of Police Winston James was approached to request the sitting Chief Magistrate Patricia Mark to bring up Professor Daisley to do a second Autopsy.
His findings were different from the Government Pathologist and the two of them met to take a fresh look at the case which ended in murder being ruled out.
THE NEW TODAY has stated in the past that one of the major weaknesses with the top Brass in the RGPF High Command is that not one of them have had experience in working in areas in the force like CID and lack a good knowledge of Crime Fighting.
It is against this backdrop that our call is for Scotland Yard to be allowed into Grenada to help with the Andrew Frederick investigation.
There is great distrust between the Family Members and the RGPF over the type of investigation that was carried out in Lance Aux Epines.
Let a third party that is more independent step in from outside to help bring an end to the situation in the interest of Justice and fair play.
Any attempt by the authorities in Grenada to block Scotland Yard from entering and doing an investigation will send a bad signal to the outside world about law and order in our Tri-island State.