Three months after receiving a formal complaint, police in Grenada have finally charged a top member of the Security Detail of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell for committing an alleged criminal sexual offence.
A brief police statement said: “Police on Monday 15th June, 2020 arrested and charged Cletus St. Paul, 63 years of Tempe, St. George on three (3) counts of Indecent Assault and one (1) count of Sexual Assault.
“St. Paul who is currently on $20, 000.00 dollars bail with one surety is due in Court at a later date.
A well-placed source told THE NEW TODAY that the charge was laid on St. Paul by a member of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF).
He said the instructions were finally given five days ago to Acting Commissioner of Police, Edvin Martin based on advice received from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) which was approached for a legal opinion on the allegations that St. Paul had sexually molested a female believed to be in her early 30’s.
He stated that the file with the recommendation to slap the sex charge on the senior member of Dr. Mitchell’s Security Detail was returned to the police since last week with instructions “to pull in St. Paul” for prosecution.
A police insider told THE NEW TODAY that several officers in the force were wondering why Commissioner Martin was taking so long to give the go-ahead for the charges to be slapped on St. Paul.
One said: “I know many victims who are waiting to come forward (with sexual allegations complaints against St Paul) once he is charged.”
The Prime Minister is believed to have been notified in advance by Commissioner Martin about the impending criminal charge against his security aide.
It was in February that the woman visited CID to give specific details to a female police officer about the alleged sexual misconduct on the part of the top Security official who had once served as the Chief Bodyguard to assassinated Marxist leader Maurice Bishop during the 1979-83 Grenada Revolution.
The complainant told the police that she had to put up a struggle with St. Paul while her 18-month baby was on her shoulder as he used a finger to enter her vagina without permission.
THE NEW TODAY had broken the story on the sexual assault issue surrounding St. Paul who had also served at one time as National Security Adviser to Prime Minister Mitchell.
The woman had approached the Prime Minister at his Constituency office in New Hampshire in November for assistance on a housing matter and he referred her to his top security man to help solve the problem after which the woman was put through a sexual nightmare.
She was seeking one of the houses being built by the Chinese for government in the Beausejour area of the Prime Minister’s St. George North-west constituency.
The woman alleged that St. Paul sexually assaulted her on November 16 when he visited her home to pick her up to visit the area to look at a plot of land under the control of the State.
Before going to the police, the victim visited the Prime Minister’s Constituency office in New Hampshire in December to meet again with Dr. Mitchell to notify him about the sexual attack on her by his top security aide.
The woman told the police in the statement that Dr. Mitchell was not too happy when she told him that her pastor was annoyed over the incident involving St. Paul and felt strongly that it should be pursued with the police.
The Prime Minister responded by saying, “like the Pastor is a politician”, the woman was quoted as saying in the official statement.
The woman then contacted a lawyer who advised her to bring the matter to the attention of the Police for investigation.