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Opening of the TCI Legal Year 2022 (January 4, 2022) Speech in support of the Motion to open the Legal Year 2022 By the DPP, Eugene Otuonye, Q. C.

Speeches

Opening of the TCI Legal Year 2022 (January 4, 2022)

Speech in support of the Motion to open the Legal Year 2022

By

the DPP, Eugene Otuonye, Q. C.

My Lady,

I crave your indulgence to gratefully adopt the protocol, as ably established by the Hon Attorney General.

  1. I rise to support the motion just moved by the Hon Attorney General for the opening of Legal Year for 2022. I remain ever grateful for the opportunity this occasion gives me and my office to highlight to this Hon. Court and the listening public, affairs work and the workings of Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) during the past year and our focus and strategic objectives for the new year.
  2. I will always go back to my first speech on January 2019, as the incoming DPP, because that was where I set out my vision and objective focus during my tenure as DPP. In the context of the circumstances then prevailing in ODPP and the TCI Criminal Justice System generally, my objective focus and pursuit were and still are:

(a) To re-build the Office of the DPP’s (ODPP) work force into a cohesive, motivated, professional and result-oriented team; I envisioned a prosecutorial powerhouse;  

(b) To re-engage in a meaningful and tangible way, with the key Criminal Justice Stakeholders;  

(c) To re-deliver our prosecutorial services and products at the highest professional standards.

  1. My implementation strategy has been to focus primarily on two of these objectives: i.e. re-building the Office of the DPP’s (ODPP) work force into a cohesive and motivated, professional and result-oriented team; and re-engaging with the Key Criminal Justice Stakeholders. It has been my strong conviction that the ODPP cannot effectively deliver its constitutional and statutory mandate, unless with a cohesive, motivated and professional work force; unless, the Criminal Justice Stakeholders, of which ODPP is a key member, share and pursue together, a vision of an effective and efficient criminal justice system, and to work collaboratively towards realizing this vision.
  2. In the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Opening of the Legal Year, I shared the great strides and progress made in pursuit of this 3-objective focus, amidst the constraints and challenges of Covid-19 Pandemic which remain with us to date. Posterity will however be the final judge on how well or otherwise I have done.

Re-building the ODPP workforce.

  1. Suffice it today, to say that I am deeply grateful and proud to be working with an outstanding, cohesive and motivated Team comprising, not just the in-house Prosecutors and the Administrative staff, but also Prosecutors on special prosecutorial assignments such as the SIPT as well as other external Prosecutors I have had need to instruct to conduct Prosecutions on my behalf.
  2. My profound gratitude goes to two Senior Prosecutors, Mrs Leanna Brooks-Campbell and Ms Latisha Williams, and a Prosecutor, Mrs Kellee- Gai Smith. These 3 demitted their respective offices in 2021, after putting together, about 25 years in prosecutorial service. Ms Glenda Clarke, came to ODPP’s rescue from the private Bar to serve as a temporary Senior Prosecutor, demitting office in December 31, 2021. We salute them all for their outstanding service to a grateful government and people of TCI.
  3. The ensuing vacant posts have been recently filled by equally outstanding Prosecutors: Sylvester Folorunso (Principal Prosecutor); Nayasha Hatmin (Senior Prosecutor); Sophia Thomas (Senior Prosecutor) and Kelly-Ann Francis (Prosecutor). Together, they are bringing to the work of ODPP, a combined prosecutorial experience of more than 45 years. We have since welcome them into the ODPP family and they have well settled down to work.

Re-engagement with our Partners

  1. My meaningful re-engagement with our Criminal Justice Partners, primarily led to the establishment of the Criminal Justice Stakeholder Group (CJSG)[1]. The first of its kind in the region, the CJSG, is now under the strong, sterling and result-oriented leadership of you, My lady. I am privileged and indeed grateful to be one of the founding members of CJSG, whose several joint and collaborative initiatives are positively impacting the TCI the criminal justice system.
  2. It will be remiss of me not to mention and to publicly commend my colleagues, who have distinguished themselves, representing the ODPP in some of these Initiatives. They include, my Deputy DPP, Dr (Mrs) Angel Brooks, who served on the Criminal Procedure Rules Technical Committee; former Senior Prosecutor, Ms Latisha Williams who served on the Bail Committee; Ms Shatelia Hall-Greene who still serves on the Sentencing Committee and Ms Tamika Grant who is the current and pioneer Editor-in-Chief of the official New Letter of CJSG, the JUSTICIA. I was privileged to chair the CJSG’s Committee that enquired into and prepared a 2021 seminal Report on the affairs of the HM’s Prisons.

 Victims and Witness Support Programme and Unit

  1. One critically important joint initiative of the CJSG must be mentioned, and that is the Victims and Witness Support Programme and the its hosting as a Unit in the Office of the DPP(VWSU). This is a courageous response by the CJSG to the age-long neglect and disregard of the interests of victims and witnesses (especially vulnerable witnesses) by the TCI criminal justice system, a phenomenon that has brought most of the Common Law adversarial system to some disrepute.
  2. The public, and indeed present and potential victims and witnesses of crime will be hearing more on this critical initiative. For now, the importance of the VWS Programme is demonstrated in a quick analysis of the ODPP Case Statistics that now follow:

 Our work - the Case Statistics

  1. In summary, our Case Statistics show the following:

(a) Approximately 259 cases passed through the Magistrate Courts in 2021. Out of this number, 197 convictions (or 76% conviction rate) were recorded. Offences involved include: 45 Burglaries (Supreme and Magistrate Courts combined); 30 Theft Offences;77 Immigration Offences; 31 Drug Offences (Supreme and Magistrate Courts combined), etc. 

(b) Out of 90 Supreme Court Cases disposed off, 51 cases were actually tried or the Defendants pleaded guilty. This brings the total convictions to 44 or 86% conviction rate. 7 not guilty verdicts (or 14%) were recorded; Offences involved include: 2 Homicide; 10 Sexual offences; 7 Forgeries; 31 Assault and other offences against the Person; 23 firearms;1 Money Laundering;

  1. Further details of these statistics will be available in the media and in the ODPP website scheduled to be launched during this Quarter. However, an unsettling feature of these statistics must be highlighted. At the Supreme Court alone, despite what appears to be high conviction rate, 39 cases or 43% of the 90 cases dealt with, did not make it to trial. The defendants were discharged either because a Nolle Prosequi was entered or there was not enough evidence to proceed further. In either case, the dominant reason has been the unavailability of witnesses (including victims) who were no longer available to give evidence for a variety of reasons, ranging from loss of interest and frustration; being fearful for their lives and those of their family members, and loss of confidence and trust in a criminal justice system which they say cannot provide simple support and care for them as witnesses and victims, let alone protect them against risk of serious reprisals from those against whom they would testify.
  2. This is a real threat and a bane to the TCI criminal justice system. It is to this, that the CJSG has jointly and collaboratively responded, by supporting the establishment of the VWS Programme and a Unit in the ODPP to oversee its implementation.
  3. This initiative, it must be noted, is underpinned by the recent enactment of the Vulnerable Witnesses Ordinance and the Sexual Offences Ordinance for which, the Hon Attorney General and her drafting team, the Cabinet, the House of Assembly, and the former Criminal Justice Adviser, Hilary Ryan, must be highly commended.
  4. I am optimistic that the launching of the VWSU during the course of this year, among other things:

(a) will highlight why and how the interests of victims and witnesses should be put first in our criminal justice delivery;

(b) will kick-start the campaign to regain the trust and confidence of victims and witnesses in our criminal justice system, and

(c) will educate and sensitize the public on their civic, moral and legal obligation, not only to report crime, but more importantly, to assist in bringing perpetrators of crime to justice, by testifying.

  1. My Lady, on this 2022 Opening of Legal Year, I have deliberately showcased the CJSG and part of its work, because I envisioned from 2019 when I took office, and still do, that the effective and efficient criminal justice system of TCI, depends on its Stakeholders working, not in silos, but collaboratively and cooperatively, without compromising their respective independent and critical roles. And in this, I dare say, we have done well with gratitude to you, my Lady, for your strong and sterling leadership and your judicial administration team; to the Hon Attorney General and her staff; to the Commissioner of Police and Superintendent of Prisons and their Officers; the Director of Department of Social Development and her team, and the TCI Bar Association and their representative in CJSG, Mr. Oliver Smith, Q.C.

 

  1. We have recorded milestones, but we are not there yet; much is still to be done to reach our goal of an effective and efficient criminal justice system in TCI. We will get there if we faint not, and by God’s enabling grace.

I so move in support of the motion for the Opening of the Legal Year, 2022.

                 Eugene Otuonye, Q.C.

                 Director of Public Prosecutions

                 4th January 2022      

[1] CJSG membership comprises: The Judiciary, the AG Chambers, the Office of the DPP, the Police, the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (formerly HM’s Prisons); Department of Social Development and the TCI Bar Council.