Update from court hearing in St Lucia

Margaret has now had more feedback from St Lucia on the progress towards getting the case against those charged with Roger's murder to trial.

At the last hearing a week ago there was an expectation that the defendants would be asked to plead guilty or not guilty. That stage wasn’t reached because there were still two issues outstanding.  The main issue which has been outstanding all year, is whether one of the defendants is fit to plead.

It’s sad to report that at last week’s hearing the outstanding issues were still not cleared.

We therefore understand that the judge has deferred the matters again, this time to 22 January when an expert witness will be summoned to advise on fitness to plead.  The judge has now set a revised provisional date for trial of 28 April, subject to all the other matters being resolved.

In May, Margaret was led to believe that the target was to get this final stage wrapped up before the summer recess for the courts.  For whatever reasons, matters have now drifted on for a further six months. Let’s hope that 2018 will see real progress achieved.