MONTEGO BAY, St James

The six-month prison sentence imposed by Senior Resident Magistrate Winsome Henry on former police detective Carey Lyn-Sue, who confessed to fabricating evidence with a view to securing a conviction for the 2006 murder of 23-year-old Sheldon Shaw, is being described as harsh and confusing by several senior lawyers here who were expecting her to go easy on him with a suspended sentence.

"The legal system in Jamaica owes a huge debt of gratitude to the unsolicited confession. If I was the Commissioner of Police, he would never have lost his job...The young man should never have spent a day in jail," said Roy Fairclough.
Fairclough, an oputspoken defence lawyer, has repeatedly complained that the Evidence Ammendment Act is set up in a way that facilitates the creation by police of ghost witnesses.
His views stood in stark contrast to those expressed by RM Henry who said that Lyn-Sue's "premeditated" and "unjustified" actions had sent shock waves through and caused great damage to the legal system and the police force, leaving her no option but to impose a custodial sentence.

As a result of his conversion to Christianity, Lyn-Sue, 32, decided to abandon the lie earlier this year in January when the clerk of the court asked him if he had been able to locate one Marcus Grant, whose written testimony put the blame for Shaw's murder on one Jason James who is currently serving time on unrelated gun charges.

Prior to the sentencing, Lyn-Sue's attorney, Morrell Beckford, made an impassioned plea for mercy citing his client's frustrations with the refusal by witnesses to come forward. He was visibly disappointed with the outcome, however. "My hope was that there would have been appreciation for the strength of character that Lyn-Sue displayed in that he made a clean breast. I had hoped that this would have been reflected in the sentence," he told the Observer West.

Defence attorney said George Thomas who applauded Lyn-Sue' for confirming what defence attorneys had suspected all along, told the Observer West that he found the sentence confusing.

"I don't know what kind of signal is being sent...as others in the Jamaica Constabulary Force who have done this in the past will not come out now."

However defence attorney Albert Morgan pointed out that the RM's job was a difficult balancing act.

"While others might be deterred from coming forward, it would also serve in deterring others from doing it in the first place.... a determination had to be made," he said.

In the meantime, according to Fairclough, the danger is still lurking in the system as witnesses are still able to give statements and 'disappear by arrangement' leaving defence lawyers with no means of challenging their truthfulness.

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