‘The truth will come out’ Bush told police when charged

(CNS): Nevron Bradshaw, the lead detective on the historic sexual assault case against former premier McKeeva Bush (69), told the court that when he had cautioned and then charged him with rape, the politician had said, “All I have to say is that the truth will come out.” When Bush was arrested in connection with the allegations and interviewed, he had answered ‘no comment’ throughout, except to tell the police that he did not know the woman making the allegation, had never gone anywhere with her and that the incident never happened.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Detective Constable Bradshaw, the last of the crown witnesses, said that after the accusation had been made, he had spoken with some members of the PPM believed to have been at the event at a George Town bar where, according to Bush’s accuser, she was asked to drive Bush home on some unknown evening, possibly in 2000.

The woman has said that she had gone to the Sea Inn Bar to collect her mother, who needed a ride home. Bush was present at the bar, along with several members of what is now the PPM, including Kurt Tibbetts and Alden McLaughlin. She said that they were celebrating something to do with McLaughlin’s political career.

DC Bradshaw said he had approached McLaughlin to see if he could recall any specific event relating to him around that time. But McLaughlin had told the police that, while he was by then aware of the allegations, he knew nothing about the incident and was unable to give a statement. However, he did say that there were several occasions when politicians were at that bar at the estimated time. He said he was aware the woman’s mother was a regular there but he had no knowledge about the allegations and so could not assist the inquiry.

The officer spoke about other people that the woman said she had told before she had reported the allegation to the RCIPS, including an old friend who was also a police officer. But when Bradshaw contacted her, she said she knew nothing about the incident.

The officer’s evidence followed that of two people who had connected to the court via Zoom and knew the woman when she lived in the United States. She had told these two witnesses about the rape less than a year before she went to the police. They both said she had told them that she had been raped many years ago by a powerful man in the Cayman Islands.

One of them was a pastor with a counselling ministry who had worked with the woman to help her with some historic trauma and she had spoken about this rape allegation during their sessions. He said she had named McKeeva Bush and said that she had been taken to a dark road where the assault took place.

The other witness was a church friend. She said she believed the woman had told her about the incident sometime in 2018 or 2019 when they were both living in Florida; the woman had not named the politician involved but had told her he was a powerful person in Cayman.

A third witness, a long-time friend who had appeared via Zoom on Tuesday afternoon, also stated that the woman had told her about the sexual assault, and the first time she did so was some twelve years ago. The woman had told her that she had been raped when she was much younger by an important man in the Cayman Islands, but she had not said that he was a politician or identified him.

Following the final witness on Wednesday, the crown closed its case against Bush with a list of agreed facts in the case, which were handed to the jury, such as the ages of both Bush and his accuser, the fact that McLaughlin was elected to office in the year 2000, the dates when Bush was arrested and charged, and his denial of the allegations.

The case continues.