ODPP has filed appeal in Bush assault case

(CNS): Director of Public Prosecutions Simon Davis has confirmed that his office filed an appeal in April after the court stopped the trial against McKeeva Bush, who was facing allegations of indecent and common assault. However, the trial judge, Justice Stanley John, ordered a stay of the proceedings on 29 February.

Responding only briefly to questions from CNS about a retrial, Davis said he was unable to comment beyond confirming the appeal in respect of the judge’s decisions.

This means that, as the veteran politician predicted, the ODPP appears to be planning to pursue a retrial in relation to both the women in that case and all four counts on the indictment, despite the unequivocal position of one of the women that she did not believe she was the victim of any crime perpetrated by Bush and did not want to participate in the prosecution.

The Order of Stay has now been lifted by the judge concerning two of the four counts, clearing the way for a retrial. This means that the appeal will be confined to the two counts relating to the very reluctant witness.

The case against Bush, which alleges that he indecently assaulted two civil servants at an official cocktail party at the Ritz-Carlton in September 2022, collapsed in February after Bush’s legal team successfully argued that there had been an abuse of process by the crown. The defence had said that pertinent information was not disclosed to them before the trial and that there appeared to be undue interference in the case.

In a damning ruling finally released to the public this week, the judge said the system “was being misused by person/s with their own agenda” in regards to how the evidence of one of the women was obtained and used.

A gag order on the ruling was initially imposed because Bush was also facing a historic rape charge, for which he was acquitted on Monday. Once that trial had ended, the ruling in the earlier trial was made public.

No date has been announced when the appeal in this case will be heard, but the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal will next sit in September.