Man 'lost behind bars' for 7 years

A BELMONT labourer who spent a total of seven years, eight months and 20 days unlawfully incarcerated at Remand Yard in Golden Grove Prison — after prison authorities failed to release him when his case was dismissed by a magistrate — will get just under $1 million in compensation from the State.

In 2012, Wendell Beckles, 51, of Belmont, was awarded damages of just over $2 million by a High Court judge. This was appealed and a reassessment was done by a master of the High Court, who earlier this month in a written decision, revised the figure to $900,000, for general and exemplary damages.

Master Patricia Sobion-Awai also ordered that interest at 2.5 per cent be added to the $800,000 in general damages, from September 11, 2009 to April 27, 2018. Beckles was represented by attorney Mark Seepersad. In her assessment, Sobion-Awai repeated Justice Carol Gobin’s opening statements in her ruling:

“This is a case without precedent. The circumstances which gave rise to it are deeply disturbing. The claimant needlessly spent just short of eight years of his life at the Remand Yard, deprived of his liberty without justification.

“This was not a case of wrongful conviction, or of incarceration following a judicial order that was subsequently overturned for some reason. It was an unlawful incarceration that began through the failure on somebody's part to communicate the order of a magistrate which would have led to his release. It was allowed to continue because it appears the claimant was literally, as we say, 'lost in jail.'

“It seems no one in charge asked the obvious question: when is Beckles going back before a magistrate or a judge, or simply, why is he still here?” Beckles was charged with arson in 1999 and committed to stand trial in February 2000. Unable to secure bail, he remained on remand, awaiting trial.

The matter was remitted to a magistrate who presided over the inquiry by the Director of Public Prosecutions under Section 26 of the Indictable Offences Preliminary Inquiry Act, for taking further evidence. After the case had been called on a number of occasions, on December 18, 2001, the charges against Beckles were dismissed, but the prison authorities did not not immediately release him.

He was taken back to Golden Grove Prison and remained incarcerated on remand from December 18, 2001 to September 8, 2009. He began legal action against the Commissioner of Prisons and the State on September 7, 2009 — the day before his release.

Although she did not make an award for loss of earnings, Sobion-Awai, in assessing exemplary damages, said this was “beyond question a most egregious case of neglect and carelessness by prison authorities with dire consequences for the victim who was robbed of four years and more of his life.” Beckles is expected to appeal the assessment.