Bridger finally off the hook over Tempura

| 23/11/2017 | 12 Comments
Cayman News Service

Martin Bridger, SIO of Operation Tempura

(CNS): The senior investigating officer on the long-running and ill-fated police corruption probe, Operation Tempura, will not be charged. More than four years after then police commissioner David Baines announced that Martin Bridger had himself become the subject of investigation over what information he may have revealed to the media about the controversial inquiry, the RCIPS confirmed Thursday that the director of public prosecutions had issued a legal ruling that there would be no criminal prosecution against him or his colleague on the investigation, Richard Coy. A spokesperson for the police said the men had been advised of the ruling and that the case is now closed.

The allegations against Bridger were never fully spelled out by the police and at no time over the last four years was he interviewed about the accusations of wrongdoing, while the allegations hung over his head and hampered his own claims about the mishandling of the inquiry by local and British officials.

The discredited probe began more than ten years ago when Bridger arrived in Cayman undercover, posing as a real estate agent, with a fellow officer from London’s Metropolitan Police to investigate allegations that the late Desmond Seales, publisher of Cayman Net News, was in a corrupt relationship with Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis. It took Bridger less than three weeks to work out that those allegations were utterly unfounded and had essentially stemmed from rumour, speculation and the distorted imaginations of two employees at the newspaper, Lyndon Martin and John Evans.

But the British cop began to turn his attention to the police management and they way they had handled the report of the allegations when they were made to the RCIPS, in particular the possible illegal entry into the newspaper’s offices in search of evidence to support the accusations that had been made.

Bridger’s team then began investigating other elements of the probe, which led to the arrest, later deemed illegal, of a high court judge and the resulting costly payout. They also looked at other allegations of police corruption, which led to then deputy police commissioner Rudi Dixon being tried and acquitted of misconduct, for which he, too, was given an undisclosed major payout.

The investigation, which rolled on for many years, also saw then police commissioner Stuart Kernohan and chief superintendent John Jones suspended from their jobs. Kernohan was eventually sacked and, following a protracted dispute with government, he was also paid off; John Jones eventually returned to his job after years on leave with full pay.

The probe cost tens of millions of dollars and did not secure a single prosecution.

In March last year, after a protracted fight with the Information Commissioner’s Office, the governor’s office released a controversial report about a complaint filed by the original legal advisory on the probe team, Martin Polaine. Known as the Aina Report, the document revealed allegations against members of the judiciary.

However, Bridger has maintained that Benjamin Aina QC, who investigated the complaint, did not see all of the relevant evidence and the report does not tell the full story, leaving questions unanswered, including the role of, and decisions made about, the mysterious FCO territories security advisor, Larry Covington.

The released report was redacted, but at the time it was made public the governor’s office said it would consider the release of the full report when the inquiry against Bridger ended. As it now has, CNS has contacted the governor’s office to request the un-redacted version. We have also contacted Bridger for comment and are awaiting responses from both him and the governor.

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Category: Crime, Police

Comments (12)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Good show. This brave team did much to unearth the rotten core of corruption that is rife in Cayman.

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    • Shhhhhhhhhh. says:

      I honestly do not think you know bugger all about this fiasco. What “rotten core of corruption” is “rife in Cayman”? The biggest issues in this case were to do with our “colonial rulers” and their hirelings. What planet were you on when all this was dribbling out of the worm can little by little? I read through plain lenses, not tinted or tainted ones as you obviously do. Maybe you would care to do some research and tell us what the motivation was for a commissioner of police (non Caymanian) to authorise a burglary in an attempt to obtain evidence to destroy Anthony Ennis? Do that and you might stumble onto the right track.

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  2. Shhhhhhhhhh. says:

    Just another way of keeping the lid on the huge can of worms. Bridger was simply the hired help, and not the director of the play. XXXXX, and the whole sordid affair of trying to discredit Anthony Ennis needed to be kept “in the can” because the untouchable FCO would have been dragged into the mess. I personally believe that the FCO had a huge role in the whole fiasco, but there has been a huge hand over a huge and vulnerable ass!!

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  3. Anonymous says:

    The British are the best!

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  4. Anonymous says:

    fair play. he knew what a joke the rcips is…..

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  5. Anonymous says:

    uh oh, Tempura back on the radar!

  6. Anonymous says:

    So much for the British expertise. A bunch of looneys. I hope when the law suits start flying they are flying towards the U.K. I don’t know why we sit around waiting for the next colonial shoe to drop. Enough already!!

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  7. Anonymous says:

    And cue lawsuit from Mr. Bridger….

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    • Shhhhhhhhhh. says:

      Yes, to be paid for by the Caymanian taxpayers, AGAIN. The FCO should be paying is this were to be just.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Yup a bunch of good for nothings throwing away money for fun!

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  9. Anonymous says:

    ha ha ha
    …mason’s…oh, i better watch out…they may track me laughing!??

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