DPP: I haven’t got Hackshaw files as yet

DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, on Tuesday said his office has not yet received the police report on ACP Irwin Hackshaw. On June 9, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith said he was sending the Hackshaw report to the DPP for review.

The commissioner said the decision was in keeping with his mandate to ensure transparency in the police service and to assure the public that there was no cover-up in the police investigation into the allegations against Hackshaw.

Griffith told a press conference the review of the police probe was also being done for the benefit of Hackshaw, as some people “want to play prosecutor and even jury to state that what happened is contrary to what was investigated.”

Hackshaw is also under probe by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) over a series of deposits amounting to over $2 million to his private bank accounts over six years, purportedly donations to offset expenses for police social events.

A police investigation by ACP William Nurse cleared Hackshaw. A Sunday Newsday report on June 7, on the PCA’s investigation, also quoted top-level police sources as saying Hackshaw had reverted to his substantive post of Assistant Commissioner of Police.