Court date imminent following meeting with St Lucia DPP

Good morning. My name is Margaret Pratt and I'm talking to you today with an update about the progress of the trial of those accused of murdering my husband Roger Pratt in St Lucia in January 2014.

About ten days ago, quite out of the blue, I got an email from the DPP’s office in St Lucia asking if I could be available to meet with the DPP, Mr Daasrean Greene, in London.

I was very pleased that Mr Greene had remembered the case and that he thought it important to come and talk to me when he was in London.

So, I went to the High Commission, which is in Kensington, and met with Mr Mayers, the High Commissioner, I’m very grateful to him for his hospitality, and also had an hour with Mr Greene.

It was a pleasure to meet with him and to discuss elements of the case.

The update, in summary, is that the case is on track for trial. Mr Green assured me that he was making very good progress in terms of clearing the backlog of cases.

He outlined to me some of the cases that he’s cleared dating to 2012 and 2013, and therefore he now feels confident that he can move to clear cases relating to 2014. Roger’s case is probably one of the first of those.

So, all very encouraging. He is saying that the trial will last about a fortnight, that obviously I am the only witness so he’s keen that I am there throughout.



The trial will be against three defendants because the case against one, about his fitness to plead, is still outstanding and won’t be resolved until after the trial that is in planning now.

Mr Greene is meeting with the judge in charge of Roger’s case over next week and he will be programming the order of cases for this sitting between September and Christmas.

My view was that I would prefer certainty about the date to kicking my heels in St Lucia waiting for one case to finish and another to start. Maybe it slips a little bit, but at least if I know what date I have to be in St Lucia I can then plan around that. Mr Greene understands that and he has assured me he will do his best. I know he will.

The other piece of great news is that one of the other long term cases that has been outstanding, the murder of a lady named Gloria Greenwood, who was murdered in her garden in 2011, that case too is coming to trial this week and it will start on Monday. I’m delighted for the daughters of Mrs Greenwood that this case is now coming to trial.

Comments

  1. Personally watching Place in the Sun I find this very discouraging and as another Brit wanting to substantially invest in the island very worrying.

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