By Latrishka Thomas
The three men charged with throwing missiles during clashes with police arising from last year’s notorious ‘Freedom Fighters’ protest walked out of court yesterday with their heads held high after hearing that the matter is being dismissed.
Dwayne Desilva, Horan ‘Hammer Pump’ George and Terry Viville were charged days after the August 8 2021 uprising which saw police use tear gas and fire rubber bullets to disperse protestors.
The demonstration was staged in protest at various Covid-19 related measures, including the imposed state of emergency and mandatory vaccines.
When the men first appeared in court in August 2021, their lawyer Leon Symister asked for the entering of pleas to be deferred until the case file was disclosed.
But despite Magistrate Conliffe Clarke making the order to the prosecution, the police file was not shared with the defence by their next court date.
So just last week, the prosecution was given another opportunity to disclose the file before yesterday’s hearing.
Symister referred to the six-month wait as an “unreasonable delay” and made a formal application for the case to be dismissed for want of the prosecution.
The prosecution yielded to the hands of the court and the matter was therefore thrown out.