Teenagers acquitted of street robbery

(CNS): Two teenagers from West Bay who had been facing a serious charge of robbery were acquitted by a jury on Monday. Allan McKenzie and Eddington Bush, both 19, had denied that there ever was a robbery but said they had been involved in a fight with the complainant last summer after he had acted aggressively towards them. However, Mario Bush had told police he was assaulted outside a West Bay store in June 2018 by the two young men, who ripped out his earings and stole his bracelets.

But during the course of the trial Mario Bush’s evidence was inconsistent and even the date of the alleged robbery was called into question, with the prosecutors having to amend the indictment partway through the trial. It also emerged that he had a history of making false claims and was suffering from mental health problems.

McKenzie and Bush claimed they had been attacked by Mario Bush. McKenzie accused him of attacking him with a seagrape tree branch, and as a result he was forced to defend himself, while Eddington Bush denied ever hitting Mario Bush at all.

With the crown relying entirely on the credibility of Mario Bush and no other witnesses or evidence to corroborate his claims, the defence attorneys argued on behalf of the two West Bay teenagers that there was no robbery.

James Stenning, who acted for McKenzie, told the jury that there were various and notable “inconsistencies, discrepancies and omissions” between the complainant’s statement and his evidence in court, not least the fact that neither the prosecutors nor Bush could agree on the date of the alleged crime.