Robbery fugitive was exposed as ‘grass’

Dan Kelly

(CNS): A defence attorney representing a man convicted of a West Bay bakery store robbery said his client had skipped bail after being charged because he had been exposed as an informant in an unrelated gang-case. Dan Kelly (24) was convicted last month of robbery and possession of an unlicensed firearm. When he appeared for his sentencing hearing Tuesday, lawyer Laurence Aiolfi of Samson & McGrath told the court that Kelly had left Cayman following threats to his life after the police revealed his identity in relation to a statement he gave about a “very serious crime” and the perpetrator.

The West Bay man was in court to be sentenced after he was convicted by Justice Charles Quin in October in a judge alone trial of robbing the Caribbean Bakery in 2010 when he was just 18 years old. Kelly committed the crime with Derek Simpson, who admitted his part several years ago and has already served his three-year sentence.

Kelly was bailed after he was charged with the robbery, but while awaiting trial he was arrested in connection with another unidentified case, the court heard. Although he was never charged for that offence, while he was with police and unrepresented he spoke with them about a serious gang related case and named an individual who, Aiolfi said, was later convicted of the crime, which was not disclosed during Tuesday’s hearing.

He said that when Kelly told police about this, he didn’t realise that he had set in motion something that would eventually see his identity revealed and put his family and his own life in jeopardy.

Aiolfi said Kelly had given the information thinking it would be protected because he had not wanted to give evidence in court. He believed that by not appearing in court, his details would remain confidential. However, in the process of disclosure after the accused man was charged Kelly was exposed as one of the people who had given evidence during the investigation.

Faced with immediate threats to himself and his family, Kelly had been given only two choices by the RCIPS, which was protective custody here or witness protection overseas.

But he took matters into his own hands and left Cayman to live in the UK, which is why he had skipped bail, the lawyer said. Although not in complete hiding, he kept away from Cayman for several years until he felt it was safe to return. But Aiolfi said Kelly had always intended to return home and made the decision to do so in May 2015.

The lawyer said that Kelly had come back prepared to hand himself in on his own terms and deal with this outstanding case, but was arrested on a British Airways aircraft after an off-duty police officer had spotted him on the plane. He has been in custody ever since.

Aiolfi revealed the details of Kelly’s inadvertent role as an exposed informant and the safety and security problems it had created for him and his family, as he argued for a lenient sentence on his client’s behalf. He said that although Kelly had not given evidence at the trial, he had given the police accurate information that assisted the case.

Crown counsel Kenneth Ferguson had told the judge that Kelly should be facing as much as eight or nine years for the robbery. This was because he had played the dominant role, he had been the one who had carried the adapted flare gun, and because he had struck the female cashier in the head during the 32-second heist before he and Simpson fled with $400 in cash. Although charged with using an imitation weapon and not a real gun, Ferguson said that the lone employee was not aware of that.

But Aiolfi pointed to Kelly’s age at the time and the three-year sentence that his co-accused had received, and argued that there was little difference in the roles of the two robbers as they were both masked and committed the crime together.

After listening to the crown’s position on the high culpability and harm that the robbery caused and the mitigation factors from Aiolfi, Justice Quin asked for further details on how much Kelly’s information had assisted the other case and said he would deliver his sentencing ruling in the New Year.