MLA’s ex-office manager accused of managing robbery

(CNS): Prosecutors have accused Christine Rae Smith, the former office manager for George Town MLAs Roy McTaggart and Winston Connolly, of managing an armed robbery at a nail salon that was carried out by two men who were well-known to her. As the case against Smith, charged with robbery, opened Wednesday, the court heard that she was in the Elegant nail salon last summer when it was held up by two armed masked men. But police said phone messages between one of the robbers and Smith proved she was managing the hold-up while pretending to be a victim.

Smith has denied any involvement in the crime.

She was arrested and charged when a phone belonging to Paul Myles, one of the two men who have already admitted robbing the hair and nail salon, revealed incriminating messages between him and Smith on the night of the crime. Prosecutors say Smith was not a victim but was deeply involved in the planning and execution of the crime.

Patrick Moran, the deputy director of public prosecutions, told the court that Smith’s telephone number was listed in Myles’ contacts on his phone as ‘theboss#1’. On the evening of the heist she was sending messages to Myles telling him where valuables were in the salon and how many customers were at the shop. There were also pictures stored on Smith’s own phone of her with the robbers and the weapons reportedly used in the hold-up.

The robbery happened at the salon on Godfrey Nixon Way in George Town, around seven minutes before 8pm, when Smith and two other female customers were in the shop as well as the owner and a member of staff.

The owner of the shop gave emotional evidence about what was clearly a harrowing ordeal. She told the court that the two masked men dressed in black came into the store, one armed with a longer gun and the second with what was described as looking like a flare gun. The witness told the court the man with the longer weapon stuck the gun in her face and demanded money before lining up the women and ordering them to hand over money.

As the women screamed and begged for their lives, they gave the robbers their valuables, including cash, jewellery and phones. Smith, who was also in the store, handed over her phone and jewellery as well. But the witness told the court that Smith had pushed one of the robbers, which had scared the other women as they yelled at her not to antagonize them because they might all get killed.

After taking around $1,000 in cash and valuables, the men fled on foot. The owner said that Smith, whom she knew vaguely through another friend, followed the robbers and so she in turn followed Smith, but she said she lost sight of the robbers and Smith indicated they had made their escape through a hole in the fence towards Al Thompson’s store. Smith said she wanted to call 911, but since her phone had been stolen, she fled to the electronics store next door and borrowed a phone and made the 911 call. Smith also spoke with the 911 operators, playing the victim but all the while having orchestrated the robbery, the crown claimed.

Smith had been in the Salon several times that day after making an appointment to come later in the evening. She was not believed to be connected to the crime at the start of the investigation and the police considered her to be one of the victims.

However, when Myles was arrested in connection with an unrelated investigation, his phone was discovered in a drain pipe behind a property in Martin Lane. A forensic analysis of that phone linked him to the robbery. In turn Smith, who, according to the crown, had sent nine messages to Myles at the time of the salon hold-up, confirm she was the ‘boss’ of the heist, so she was also arrested and later charged.

Setting out his case, Moran said that the circumstantial evidence on the phones, including pictures and messages, point to Smith as the person nicknamed ‘the boss’ and indicate her clear involvement. Although she denied being part of the crime and claimed to have been a victim herself, she gave no comment in interviews to the police about the messages and the pictures taken of her with the robbers and the weapons. Moran told the court that Smith was as guilty of robbery as the two men who had burst into the store with the guns and threatened the women.

Before Smith was arrested and charged she worked as the office manager and PA to Connolly and McTaggart at their George Town office when the pair were both still members of the Coalition for Cayman group. After she was arrested they sacked her and closed the office. An employment tribunal found she was wrongfully dismissed but had been paid off by the politicians over and above what the tribunal found was required for being sacked.

The trial continues Friday.