CMR owner will argue human rights abuse in appeal

(CNS): Sandra Hill, the owner of Cayman Marl Road and online talk-show host, has been given leave to appeal a 2020 conviction and to instruct a senior lawyer on legal aid to argue the case. The decision was made Thursday by the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal after its president, Sir John Goldring, said the case raised human rights issues.

Hill is appealing the conviction for the abuse and harassment of Matthew Leslie and a subsequent $3,000 fine. On a podcast in 2019, Hill accused Leslie of being a sexual predator. The crown claimed she had deliberately targeted him and charged her under section 90 of the Information and Communications Technology Act, which was the first time this law was used to prosecute a member of the media in relation to their work.

While the podcast was controversial, Hill said she had styled the show “Surviving Matthew Leslie” on the famous TV mini-series “Surviving R-Kelly”. During the show, she recounted allegations about Leslie by several anonymous women and accused him of being a paedophile.

She reflected on historic allegations that women were sexually abused by police officers back in the 1990s. Leslie was a member of the RCIPS at that time and had left under a cloud as a result of his connection to those cases.

Despite persistent allegations circulating in the community about Leslie, who has run for elected office twice, he has never been convicted of any sexual offences. However, he was exposed on social media for soliciting a prostitute, which derailed his second attempt to win a seat in the Legislative Assembly in 2017.

Hill was convicted following a judge-alone trial before Justice Roger Chapple, who said she was guilty of cyberbullying, “an awful phenomenon”, and that she was not a proper journalist. She is basing her appeal on the grounds that the judge was wrong in law, that her right to freedom of speech was infringed, and that she was wrongfully prosecuted.

The appeal court said the case raised “significant issues” relating to human rights and freedom of speech, and it merited leading counsel to argue the constitutional matters it brought up.

Local defence attorney Amelia Fosuhene told the court she had been instructed by Hill, who had planned to represent herself during her appeal until the appeal judges intervened. She said they planned to instruct UK-based lawyer Sallie Bennet-Jenkins KC once legal aid cleared their application.

Director of Public Prosecutions Simon Davis had planned to defend the appeal on behalf of the crown when Hill was expected to represent herself. However, he told the court that the prosecution would now also be seeking to either instruct leading counsel or another junior.

He did not tell the court why he would no longer be presenting the crown’s case to uphold the conviction. Since arriving in the Cayman Islands to take up the post of DPP, Davis has not litigated a single case in court.

The case has been adjourned, but the date for the court to hear the arguments has not yet been set.