Speaker’s behaviour shameful, says magistrate
(CNS): House Speaker McKeeva Bush is under home curfew after a magistrate suspended a short two month prison sentence and fined him $700 on Monday for his conviction for assault and disorderly conduct. Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn described his behaviour as reprehensible and said she needed to send a message to the community. Bush has also been ordered to pay the medical expensive of his victim, Livia Kwong.
The full ruling is expected to be available later today. Check back to CNS for the full story later.
One rule of law for expats and many unsponsored Caymanians and a completely different set for Government fed Caymanians. Get used to it. Plan on it. This will not change unless the UK takes it over and really, Why would they want to?
I’ll bet the leader of opposition backing up more that a crab now…
Penal Code (2017 Revision):
§215. A person who unlawfully assaults another commits an offence and, if the assault is not committed in circumstances for which a greater punishment is provided by this or any other law, is liable to imprisonment for one year.
§216. A person who commits an assault occasioning actual bodily harm commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for five years.
So how could he avoid prison?????
Because those are maximum, not mandatory sentences. Where a sentence of imprisonment is provided for, it means that every sentencing option below that is also available. For example, section 241 of the Penal Code provides for up to imprisonment for up to 7 years for a theft of property worth $5,000 or less, but not every conviction for theft results in a prison sentence.
A suspended sentence really isn’t that unusual for a first time offender charged with common assault, particularly on a guilty plea- in fact, you’d expect to see that far more often than immediate imprisonment.
What has always puzzled me is why no one came to the lady’s defence. It would not take much to take this blotted fool out. Years ago Caymanians and expats alike would have come to her rescue. Sad indeed.
Coral Beach is “Bush’s place”, and “his staff” directed him into the kitchen to locate her a second time, and continue his drunken barrage.
Fear. Like it or not he is still the man in charge. Expats get kick off, Caymanians get worse.
Mac needs to be fired and loose his job. Come on Governor and Premier. Kick Bug Mac got of House of Parliament
Unna talking ‘bout dat likkle red Volkswagen again?
😉
Governor and Premier? How about the Caymanian people who have voted him in year after year, court case after court case?
So, Magistrate Gunn – what message do you figure this sends to the community?
The message is one set of laws for Bush and his boys and another for everyone else. Everyone knows this but you.
Disgusting
He smirked in triumph when leaving the court house. A spit in everyone’s face. The man is not human.
Cayman Islands Judiciary outcomes versus prescribed sentence guidances are really like spinning the Big wheel of chance on the Price is Right. When it comes to McKeeva Bush, his party colleagues, and years of corrupt call-in favors, and judicial interference, we, like the FATF and other international corruption watchdogs, have already come to expect all the random spin values to magically land on “spin again”. This decision reinforces the prevailing notion that high levels of persistent corruption is deeply entrenched, well-beyond the Cabinet private caucus, or Parliament. Compromising the collective faith in judicial independence is severely distressing, and destabilizing for everyone residing, investing, or traveling here. Maybe it will take a future with painful Blacklisting, or other international sanctions, to figure this out.
Is this some kind of sick joke?
Yes, Mac is a sick joke.
The video must me made public.
Yes it should be made public……. but this is the Caymans.
No, but it is the Cayman Islands.
It’s The Caymens
It won’t, but I wish it would!!
Will the videos be released now?
Are you being funny? They never show CIG misdeeds!
How much farther can corruption spread on this island – there were Caymanians in the 70’s who have passed on who must be spinning in their graves.
Actions cause consequences.
Too bad Mr. Alberga didn’t think about his “no loss” record.
Now he cannot say he never lost a case. Oh well, life is choices.
Bush pleaded guilty. This pathetic sentence is a major result for him and his advocate.
In my opinion:
Never, never, never, EVER help someone in distress while in CAYMAN.
After all, you could be beaten up and hospitalized, but nothing will happen to the person you attempted to assist. Especially if that person is a member of Parliament.
I can only hope that I never am involved in a situation like this.
nay..there wont be an appeal…politrix….free mandella vijay and skyla..shame on u all
His lawyer was anxious that he not be given a criminal record. Presumably since he pleaded guilty he got one anyway?
And what happened to his not guilty plea? Is that still pending?
This is all rather confusing.
What message did Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn actually send to the community? It would seem to me that it is open season on violent assaults against women.
We need to hit the streets , this is bullshit beyond comprehension .
This needs international exposure to put some pressure on this decision.
Someone in parliament comment please.
This prescedent has been set now , woman beaters can all refer to this sentence now .
Pathetic
What a damn shame. Sad day for The Cayman Islands. We can never recover from this. The world is watching and laughing at us. We truly are a banana republic no better than one of those countries ruled by corrupt dictators in Africa but they are third world so they have an excuse. He should be locked up for years with his bredren in Northward. Total disgrace.
Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn…I had to look her up, because I am in disbelief.
Place of Birth: United Kingdom
LLB (Hons) University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom in 1997
Postgraduate Diploma – Inns of Court School of Law, London, United Kingdom in 1998
Admitted to the Bar in England and Wales (Lincoln’s Inn) in 1998
Admitted to the Bar in Bermuda in 2010
Practiced in the United Kingdom in the areas of criminal and civil law 1999- 2006
Crown Counsel with the Cayman Islands Government Legal Department 2006 – 2010
Crown Counsel (Specialist) with the Department of Public Prosecutions in Bermuda 2010-2012
Magistrate of the Summary Court of the Cayman Islands 2012
Was she also warned by Bush that “cockroach has no business in a rooster fight”?
Her boss is AG Sam Bulgin…have a gander at his crackerjack dossier.
Who do you think installed him there in 2003? Then AG, David Ballantyne, with years left on contract, agreed to a severance, after a scripted vote of no confidence over the Eurobank collapse. This is who McKeeva, then LOGB, installed at that opportunity.
“More and more, the world and our island constituents demand that we discharge our functions with due regard for the principles of integrity, fairness, accountability, and always in pursuit of the wider public interest.” – Sam Bulgin
That last guiding admission is very telling. In the absence of any kind of inter-election voter consultation, it has provided a shortlist of entrenched corrupt, free to define what “wider public interest” means for themselves.
Her boss is the Chief Justice. His sentence is heavier than that given to Austin Harris. Doesn’t Kenneth also have a conviction- for sale of ecstasy?
No conviction recorded for that one either.
Gunn does NOT report to Bulgin.
Keep trying though you will soon get it right. Better yet, someone other than me will likely speak the truth.
SMH…
She is generally quite a sensible person. The only conclusion has to be that the judiciary is in the pocket of the politicians in Cayman. Sad but true.
They are. It’s called the lodge.
Wow, not sure I get it…4 months for jumping Covid, and ZERO months for smacking a woman….
I’m American, and as far as it goes for the Covid jumper, she knew the rules so I don’t have much to say about her jail time….
But what this guy did seems to me to be far much worse and gets no jail time.
Good message to women beaters: male chauvinism is condoned in Cayman. International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is just an opportunity to make a statement.
A wha dis?…..Unna really expected a different outcome?
I am so embarrassed to be Caymanian 🙁
This sentence is consistent with sentences imposed against persons with similar offences. Persons are simply not sent to prison for assault and disorderly conduct.
This is actually quite a serious sentence and should act as a deterrent. If he commits another offence he will have to serve the imprisonment.
Except even if he does commit another offence, it will not be considered an offence.
This verdict bears no resemblance to the guidance prescribed in our Penal Code. Common assault = 1 year in jail and Actual Bodily Harm = 5 years in jail. This wasn’t disorderly conduct. It was a sustained multi-incident violent attack, an anti-gay hate crime, with weapons, victim-shaming, and victim-intimidation. The guilty plea was not filed early, just a couple weeks ago.
Prob;em with that is a) he wasn’t charged with ABH b) its up to a year in jail, no a mandatory year. Sentencing guidelines will include a comparison to sentences handed out in the past – and if you can find periods of imprisonmen.t for common assault I would be very surpassed. You should save your ire for the DPP who decided to go with common assault rather than ABH.
He repeatedly beat a woman at her work for trying to help him out…is that the way most cases go. GFY
Well there’s a magistrate who’s trying to keep her job.
Now let’s see if Mr. DPP also wants to keep his job.
Suspect he has already lost his. Little point in appealing a 3 month suspended sentence for common assault – the judge clearly weighed up the factors, exercised her discretion and you cannot point at a well established standard of custodial sentences for common assault, so going up to the Court of Appeal would be pointless.
Why? There are many thing that should make you proud to be a Caymanian. Unless you were personally involved in the assault or you could have changed the outcome of the trial there is nothing to be “embarrassed” about.
Sounds like bullshit to me.
That is the problem and you should not just be embarrassed but ashamed!
ok I’m both
It was a 6 month sentence actually. 2 months for each charge.
suspended
Suspended – but nevertheless a prison sentence and conviction that could be resurrected next time he indecently or otherwise assaults a woman …. which we all know will happen!
People like this have no place in public life.
There is a presumption that if a sentence can be suspended, it is suspended. To displace that presumption, immediate imprisonment has to be the only appropriate response to the criminality. The magistrate appears to have got VERY close to that line, but just could not cross it. Hence the sentence plus the 6pm – 6am curfew to impose some restriction of liberty (and keep him out of the bars – come to think of it, banning him from licensed establishments would have been appropriate too).
i see 60 days imprisonment for each count. i believe its three counts. which is true?
And the magistrate said she wanted to send a message..!
She sent a message alright , saying you can get drunk and disorderly and beat up a woman, and get away with it.
Shameful pandering to a vindictive politician.
His efforts to avoid conviction were utterly classless.
How many women beaters and drug pushers are there in “Parliament” now? And as percentage the lot of them?
….the percentage is indeed perhaps representative of society on this island…sadly……
🎵Banana Republic
Septic Isle
Screaming in the Suffering
sea
It sounds like crying🎶
XXXXX Come on DPP. Let’s see EXACTLY what your department is made of. Or are you only allowed 1 appeal per year?
So can the victim now bring charges against him in civil court?
Yes
Not if she settled out of court with a nice lump sum payment
No.
If it had been an expat, every Caymanian would be bashing the immigration process and calling their MP demanding deportation. Double standard to the max! I am a voter and I do not want to be part of the corruption; he should be punished like any other person.
Do you not see the many comments/protests that are demanding this man step down and face the full extent of justice by everyone including Caymanians? You Couldn’t resist the temptation to bring the Caymanian versus ex-pat divide argument into something most have agreed on?
As a Caymanian we are disgusted by this as well but your point is taken and absolutely correct, sadly. The ones that should be in jail, him and Sandra Hill are walking around feeling justified. The justice system is not working.
….or it is indeed working…but just not for the greater good…..
What a joke I thought Cayman had turned a corner with zero tolerance for law breakers the same old story it depends on who your are and who you know wait till the US media gets a hold of this. Cayman you ain’t doing yourselves any favors here with the rest of the world.
U.S. media won’t care. He ain’t ‘Murican.
He assaulted female in USA too!
It is already on the news in the US.
The Cayman Islands is categorized by the US State Department as a Country/Jurisdiction of Primary Concern in respect of Money Laundering and Financial Crimes.
(Cayman News Service 12/21/2020): House Speaker McKeeva Bush, Speaker of the Cayman Islands Parliament is under home curfew after a magistrate suspended a short two month prison sentence and fined him $700 on Monday for his conviction for assault and disorderly conduct. Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn described his behavior as reprehensible and said she needed to send a message to the community. Bush has also been ordered to pay the medical expensive of his victim, Livia Kwong.
So this guy get a 2-month prison sentence for assault and battery suspended and only a $700 fine but a US medical student gets 4-months in prison and a $1,200 fine for breaking Covid quarantine rules. What a joke…but just remember, the magistrate said “she needed to send a message to the community.” I think the community got the message…that you are hypocritical and corrupt. I know I got the message loud and clear all the way here in Wisconsin.
Will The Government appeal the sentence that was given to McKeeva Bush by Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn as the sentence is unduly lenient?
Hopefully. What I find most disturbing about this was that the presiding magistrate was a woman. Did that create a conflict of interests, which encouraged her to dumb down the sentence for fear of criticism or retaliation?
If, as I and most people posting here seem to think should have happened, she’d have slammed him would we now be seing a chorus of claims that the sentence was unwarranted retaliation rather than justice?
Where I grew up anyone who treated a woman like he did and walked out of court needed to watch his back for a very long while – that was our justice. All that’s long behind me now but he probably needs to be careful where he goes out drinking in future :-}
Anyone could have predicted this and I bet there will be no appeal. I believe the magistrate was specifically selected and no doubt the chief justice had/has full control of this one.
The silence of the other MLA’s is disgusting! They all need to go in 2021 they are all the same.
None of the hopefuls who have declared for the next election have said anything either so what does that tell you?
exactly!
Of course not they know that if elected they have to work with Mac. He is guaranteed a seat. Parliament, this bunch of worthless POS’s are not fit to rule even a banana republic like The Cayman Islands!
Teflon McKeeva has political IOU’s on every member in the Legislature. He knows where all the bodies are buried.
McKeeva coming back next year as Premier. The best and brightest of our society. Sad reflection of our people.
And the 18 year old girl and her boyfriend are in prison for four months. THAT is TERRIBLE. Wait till this hits the news globally.
You’ll note that the grandmother is actually petitioning the White House to get involved now.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9070467/Cayman-Island-officials-needed-make-statement-sentenced-Georgia-teen.html
“Jeanne Mack told the AP that she reached out to U.S. President Donald Trump and received an email from a staffer saying the White House would look into the matter.”
Wonder what the White House will say when they discover that Caymanians that break quarantine or beat up women are either let go or given suspended sentences…
Perhaps a travel advisory to not visit the Cayman Islands?
Based on the history of the current occupant, I think the White House will have no problem with the way Cayman treats men who assault women
That it will not. The usual media outlets have been put on notice. Tara making plenty phone calls to Hollywood today to effort a hermetic sealing on this one.
Might as well have sent a mute baby in to do the spin doctoring.
Just Another Day in Absurdistan
Another sentence for the DPP to appeal….
“Reprehensible”, “pay her medical expenses”, fine of $700, another 2 months at home on full pay, what sort of message does this send to violent. women beating alcoholics like Bush?. He must be laughing almost as much as his lawyer who undoubtedly got a lot more than $700.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander, I am sure the the Prime Minister will instruct the Prosecutor’s Office to review the case on the basis of an unduly lenient sentence. This precedent was set very recently in the jet ski case.This has to be done if we are to avoid being viewed as a Mickey Mouse banana republic.
What have we come to? have we no morals or shame anymore? and yes the silence with the exception of the NS MP is an insult to each and every voter. Make something matter remember it come May, just when they thought they had a safe seat lets pull a Marco/Kenny surprise on them.
“What have we come to? have we no morals or shame anymore?”
FACT; we have always been like this; the only difference being they go to court; yet still get off.
This sentence is not at all surprising, it just confirms the level of corruption in these Islands, from the top straight to the marl road. Very sad that our MLA’s interest is purely self interest, but the electorate seem to be quite happy with the disrespect that our servants have dished out to us over the decades. Absolutely disgusting.
The “Prime Minister” should not be instructing anybody in a criminal matter – not even in a banana republic!
Alberga probably bills out more than $700 an hour haha.
It’s too late, “Say It”…. we already are!
So, let me get this straight: she slapped him on the wrist for his “shameful behavior” and let’s him walk on the first charge just because he pleaded not guilty? What the hell am I missing? That’s all you have to do? Plead not guilty and the court says “oh ok I guess you’re not guilty then”!!
And she is a judge? In a democratic law abiding country? She’s a judge?
He should have got a minimum one year sentence and barred from standing in parliament for life.
DPP where are you? Appeal against this disgraceful sentence.
and it is certain that the DPP will not have the gravitas to appeal
so no criminal record? if not..courts are shameful
He has received a criminal conviction
“suspended a short two month prison sentence” is a conviction, convictions don’t have to be imprisonment.
He got convictions; but they don’t carry any prison time as he got that “suspended” unless ofcourse he effs up during the period that said sentence has been suspended.
Why did the court not enforce treatment for his drinking and anger problems or are we to believe he curbed that when the entire island was locked down at home?
Joe public would be mandated to attend counselling as part of the suspended sentence.
…….he got his counselling in early, if you recall…..
And how do we know that he made any progress?
That is one disgusting human being…… I won’t call him a man, because he doesn’t qualify.
This place is has become a third world shit hole country. Your leaders are all reprehensible and unfit for the positions they hold. Each are a poor example to your children and the rest of the world is watching. The American girl is locked up but your biggest clown is free for a more serious offense and no one in power including the Premier and three female mla’s has anything to say. SMH
So it’s only becoming a “third world shithole” because an American girl committed a crime and had to be incarcerated? Great job on invalidating yourself because that has nothing to do with disgraceful mckeeva’s conviction.
BUSH committed THE crime. Skylar was made a scapegoat.
Rest assured this man will not comply with his house arrest provisions. Bonus points for the first person to photograph him at a New Years party, drink in hand.
Party at Mac’s!
Party at his house. Curfew honoured.
He is probably celebrating right now……
That sentence is shameful!!
What a F$&king joke!!
Time for a democrat American style “peaceful protest”!
You all say it but never show up. Ive been to both protests on this now and utterly ashamed at the lack of attendance.
The magistrate said his behavior was “reprehensible and she needed to send a message to the community”. And yet she ordered only a suspended short sentence????? What kind of double talk is this? Is this the sentence that Joe Sixpack would have gotten? The rules just don’t apply to politicians, do they?
With that joke of a sentence, this magistrate has also acted reprehensibly! 🤬
As expected! And sad! And infuriating!
4 months in jail for a covid breaker and nothing for a violent drunk…. Cayman justice is too whacky. And he should now, as a convicted person, not be allowed to remain as a member of Parliament. If he had any guts or morals he would step down…. Shame on you
Our next Premier in 2021. Does not get any better than this. McKeeva has everybody in his pocket including all the female representatives who are terrified by this individual.
This is an example of raw political power. Sad day for women.
Free Skylar and VR!
With every positive test!!
The “Prime Minister” should not be instructing anybody or Office in any criminal matter – not even in a banana republic!
What the F***
Well said, sums it all up perfectly.