Detective Inspector Rudi Evans returned from a course in the UK for senior CID officers, as reported in the 16 Oct. 1975 edition of The Caymanian Compass. One of 23 officers attending the course, from countries including Bermuda, Jordan, Tunisia, Hong Kong and the Solomon Islands, he said the 10-week programme was the “best” he’d ever attended. Though not yet back on duty in Cayman, Evans had been discussing certain recommendations with the police commissioner, adding he hoped steps were “being taken to implement some of these methods of training in these islands”.
The first section of the editorial, ‘Persons in Custody’, referred to Jean Doucet, saying that “remand provisions in the Cayman Islands appear to be antiquated”. Doucet, who had been placed in Northward Prison on remand, was allowed four visitors a week for 15 minutes each in the presence of a prison or police representative, and allowed to call his wife and his brother once a week. “Persons on remand in custody should be free to communicate with whomever they wish to without … hindrance, whether it be in person, by letter or over the telephone”, the editorial said, concluding, “A person is presumed innocent until he is proved guilty. This calls not for lip service, but for practice – even when one is in custody.”
Following on from a front-page article about all the lawyers and witnesses flying in to Cayman for the Doucet trial, which was slated to begin 20 Oct. 1975, was this story, ‘Shaw Will Try Doucet’. Magistrate Jim Shaw, while sticking to the original conditions of remand, decided he would not recuse himself from presiding over the trial, saying, “If I felt in my own mind, reason for disqualification, I would do so immediately.”
In sports news, sailor Gerry Kirkconnell earned another win, this time capturing the Martini Trophy after a three-race series. Kirkconnell, who was pictured in his Laser, was followed in the final standings by Tim Ridley, Charles Kirkconnell and Jim Wood.
