Secret Tempura report returns to courts

| 09/02/2015 | 6 Comments
Cayman News Service

Tim Owen, QC

(CNS): The secret report relating to the ever-controversial and still unresolved undercover internal police probe, Operation Tempura, will be back in the courts this week. Under yet another judicial review after the governor’s office refused to release the report, which documents a complaint made by the senior investigating officer on the probe, Martin Bridger, a judge will decide if the last remaining area of dispute between the UK officials and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is resolved in favour of release.

The long and now well documented history of the secret report has seen the governor’s office fight tooth and nail to prevent the public seeing the content, although a considerable amount has already been leaked into the public domain by the UK press. However, much of the report has remained secret and deals with Bridger’s allegations that his investigation was undermined and cut short.

The costly twists and turns of Tempura continue as Bridger, the beleaguered former Scotland Yard cop who was at the helm of the probe, continues to fight Cayman Islands Attorney General Sam Bulgin for access to records that he says will allow him to fight a lawsuit filed against him by Stuart Kernohan, the former police commissioner and one of many high-profile victims of the probe.

Kernohan was awarded a substantial payout from the public purse last year after the government finally settled a legal action he had filed against it as well as Bridger, a case that is ongoing.

As the fallout from the investigation continues, the latest legal hearing takes place tomorrow (Tuesday 10 February), with Tim Owen, QC, a deputy High Court judge and British legal heavyweight, acting as the judge in the case, which is expected to last two days. With just one remaining point at issue, there are high hopes that the court will find in favour of the ICO and force the governor to release the document to the public, giving a little more insight into the secrecy and various allegations and denials that continue to surround the discredited probe.

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Category: Courts, Crime, Police

Comments (6)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Whatever happens in the on-going FOI hearing you will never see the original response to Bridger’s complaint because it was apparently completely re-written on Duncan Taylor’s orders at the beginning of 2011. There are actually two reports and the big problem with the current FOI action is that it is fixated on the second one.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Sheep asking to have the gate that leads to lions opened.

  3. Naya Boy says:

    Find out just what people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of Injustice and tyranny which will be imposed on them. Caymanians aren’t quiet their just plain reticent!!

  4. Anonymous says:

    This report need to be released th eppl of these islands have already paid too much for this BS

    • Anonymous says:

      All will come of the release would be Caymanians clucking like chickens, for about two weeks; regardless of what the report reveals.
      Regardless of what the report reveals about the true intentions of all involved, we wouldn’t have to gumption to do anything about, even if it was an option.

      Wanting the release just to fill the news-craving appetite of those who want something to chew on, would only harm the relationship between Cayman and the UK

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