By Carlena Knight
“No matter the outcome, justice will never be served.” Those were the comments of a longtime friend of Falmouth father-of-two Bruce Greenaway.
Gregory Athill, who hails from the St Paul constituency where Greenaway also lived, is among many demanding justice for the 43-year-old whose battered and lifeless body was found on Easter Monday, four days after he was reported missing in April.
An autopsy determined that Greenaway died as a result of strangulation. Four law enforcement officials – three Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force soldiers and one police officer – were later charged with murder.
Athill says, regardless of what transpires, the lives of Greenaway’s family and friends will never be the same again.
“I know a lot of people when they heard these guys were charged were shouting justice, but for me, there will never be justice for Bruce’s daughters; there will never be justice for his family; there will never be justice for the people of our community who loved Bruce dearly, because at the end of the day, how are we to justify his death?
“There are children who are going to have to live without a father, and I don’t know how any individual would feel – a mother, a father – who lost someone. There’s a lot of psychological problems people could have.
“Every single Fathers’ Day, at least one time per year, you are always going to remember your father and what happened to him with the brutal killing. So, we are never going to be justified.
“Whoever has done the crime, we would be justified in a sense that they would be sent to prison but at the end of the day, you can never be justified because his life can never be returned,” Athill said on Observer AM yesterday.
Presently, the four accused are being held at the national prison until they return to court on September 23.
Athill shared his concern over the possibility that the quartet, if convicted, could serve their time at Camp Blizzard or another location rather than prison. He is adamant that if one is found guilty of any such crime, they should be placed in 1735.
“Would it be justified if these four individuals spent their years at the barracks or at the police station?” he said. “At the end of the day, if these people are convicted, we expect them to spend hard labour behind the prison walls. We know of others in the past who have been serving time elsewhere, which the superintendent of the prison has said that he has the authority to say who he wants there, but I’ve never seen any ordinary person spending their time at the police station or any barracks.
“I know people are presumed innocent until guilty, but the people out here think whether or not you are accused or whatever, you should be placed where the others are.”
The political activist also blamed the slow process of the court system for why many alleged criminals make the case that they do not want to be housed at the country’s lone prison for a long period of time due to security risks.
