Gun found in tank at customs officer’s home

Claude Anthony Terry

(CNS): The trial of suspended customs officer Claude Anthony Terry (36) for possession of an illegal gun opened in Grand Court this week, when the jury heard that the weapon, ammunition and pepper spray were found in a locked metal box in a water tank at his apartment on Cayman Brac in August 2016. The prosecution’s case is that the firearm was taken from an evidence lock-up at the customs office on the Sister Islands by Terry several years before and he had hidden the box inside the tank. 

Reviewing the evidence for the jury Monday as he opened the case, crown counsel Kenneth Ferguson said that the Smith & Wesson revolver and several rounds of .44 ammunition had been seized in 2005 by Brac customs officers and at some point had gone missing. The weapon turned up on the property where Terry lived when his landlord was cleaning out the water tanks in preparation for the property to be connected to the mains supply. Ferguson told the court that during the trial the crown would present DNA evidence linking the weapon to Terry.

However, Terry has denied the allegations and has claimed that the weapon was planted either by a police officer or by two of his colleagues at the customs office.

The trial continues.