Bush claims rape allegation is political

(CNS): In a short statement issued to the media yesterday following his appearance in court on rape and sexual assault charges, McKeeva Bush MP (WBW) has denied the allegations. He referred to an “evil plot” and a “malicious accusation”, which he suggested were politically motivated. He claimed the allegation was made by a woman that he “never had any contact with”.

Bush (68) implied that the charges were linked to his demands that the banks cut their interest rates and that the government removes their control of interest rate increases. He was referring to a private member’s motion that he had brought to parliament, which was seconded by Chris Saunders MP (BTW) and broadly supported by all of the members. No other MPs have been arrested for any crimes.

In his statement made yesterday after news broke that he had been charged in relation to an alleged rape and sexual assault that took place 23 years ago and had spent a brief period at the Fairbanks detention centre, he compared himself to jailed international freedom fighters such as Marcus Garvey, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.

The former speaker of the House and the Cayman Islands’ first premier also suggested that the timing of these charges, like the ones he faced more than ten years ago, was suspicious.

“It is indeed remarkable that in 2012, just weeks before I was due to travel to Jamaica to have bestowed on me, an honourary degree, I was charged with fraud relating to the use of my lawfuly issued government credit card – the result – acquitted.

“This came on the heels of the furore, about my having been at the forefront of granting Caymanian status, to persons who had shown their commitment to the development of the Cayman Islands.

“I am due to travel in a couple weeks time overseas, representing the Cayman Islands at the Commonwealth Parliamentary business session, and here comes this malicious accusation and charge against me, said to have occurred twenty years ago,” he said.

In 2012, Bush was arrested for theft in connection with allegations over the misuse of his government credit card, charges for which he was later acquitted. At the time, he was also under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Committee over the honorary doctorate he had been offered by the University College of the Caribbean.

As reported on CNS, the degree was connected to a CI$1 million donation made to the university by a bank that Bush, who was premier at the time, had been dealing with in his efforts to solve the government’s debt crisis and budget deficits.

However, the university gave the cash back, and so Bush never got the honorary doctorate. He claimed then he knew nothing about the donation by the New York bank or the loan, insisting it was all part of a conspiracy to oust him from office permanently. He was never prosecuted in that case.

Bush has been the subject of numerous other investigations, including the infamous Stan Thomas fax, which a local judge uncovered during an unrelated civil property case. The content of the fax appeared to possibly represent a bribe Bush had received over land zone changes, but that was never prosecuted either.

The case was stalled by a combination of factors, including the statute of limitations and the fact that Thomas, a millionaire landowner, would have been at risk of prosecution in the United States if he had given evidence.

Around the same time, Bush was also accused of possible unlawful political interference in a dynamite importation case. After officials seized a shipment of dynamite that had been imported by a quarry owner without the correct licences, Bush sent a memo to the collector of customs asking him to release the dynamite. He claimed that this was nothing more than an effort to assist a friend, but since he was the minister responsible for customs, sending such a message to the head of the department raised questions as to whether it was a direction rather than a request.

Suresh Prasad, the Managing Director of Midland Acres, was prosecuted and fined over the unlawful shipment, but no charges were ever brought against Bush in that case.

In more recent years, allegations of Bush’s inappropriate behaviour towards women have become the subject of police probes. In July 2017, he was arrested in Florida, though never formally charged, after reports that he had groped a waitress at a casino.

Then in February just before the pandemic locked down the Cayman Islands, he was accused of physically assaulting a woman, for which he was later charged and convicted. But even though he pleaded guilty to the assault, Bush continues to deny those charges and blames the victim for the incident.

In March this year, he was charged with indecently assaulting two female civil servants at an official tourism ministry function in September 2022. He is due to stand trial on those charges later this year.

The statement circulated by Bush was sent to Associated Press. The news of Bush’s arrest has already spread through the regional media and onto the international stage, including the British press.

See Bush’s statement below:

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