Providenciales – More confirmation coming overnight about the scandalous Hearsay ordinance; a former member of the consultative forum, which functioned in the interim administration, telling our newsroom that the bill never got to the floor and research bears out that it got stuck after infuriating members of the TCI Bar Council, who were in October 2011, given a week to review the legislation put forth by the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Back then, it was thought the time was too short for the review and yesterday, MM confirmed with the AG’s Office that there is no such legislation. This, is further supported by a TCI Bar Council member and former president that indeed it was never passed and that there is no variation of that bill at play today. This all becomes important after the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team took exception to an article published by the TCI Sun Newspaper. It claimed the Hearsay Ordinance existed and that lead prosecutor Andrew Mitchell, QC has a bodyguard. Both were denied by the SIPT in a news release on Wednesday.
We sought comment from Hayden Boyce, Editor in Chief of the publication who firmly believes this ordinance exists, he said: “It is most regrettable and evil that Special Prosecutor Helen Garlick, lead prosecutor Andrew and the SIPT team as a whole, continue to lie to, and mislead, the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands and indeed the rest of the world. It is an undisputed fact that a Hearsay Ordinance was introduced in the Turks and Caicos Islands during the period of Direct Rule. Indeed, the Turks and Caicos Islands Bar Council is on record as objecting to this particular piece of controversial legislation and the Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands even made reference to the Hearsay Ordinance when he addressed CARICOM Heads of Government in Haiti.”
While much of what Boyce explains is true… we could find no evidence that this law, which many believe was existent, was ever enacted.
