Clinton Bernard, who was shot by a rogue cop and had to take his case all the way to the Privy Council to get the Jamaican Government to accept culpability, is trying hard not to be bitter.

However, his permanent limp and his susceptibility to epileptic seizures, none of which he had before he was shot in the head, are constant reminders of the day of horror – March 17, 1990.

“I am human, and I am really trying not to be bitter, you know. ‘Cause it was a long fight, and it was a fight every step of the way,” Bernard said with a deep sigh, during an exclusive telephone interview with the Sunday Observer from his home in London.

The former lithographic printer has lived in England for the last three years and he is now studying engineering at a tertiary institution there. His absence, Bernard said, has been especially hard on his three young sons – aged five, eight, and nine years old – and he is looking forward to coming home.

“Jamaica will always be my home, injustice and all,” he said. “But also, when it gets cold here the limp becomes painful, and just uncomfortable. So I have to come home, and furthermore, I did not plan to live here for the rest of my life.”

Bernard was shot 13 years ago and after his long fight for justice the London-based Privy Council ruled, in October, that the Jamaican Government was liable for the action of the off-duty cop who shot him in a fit of rage.

The encounter began innocuously enough – Bernard was simply trying to use a pay phone at the post office’s Central Sorting Office (CSO) in Kingston. After waiting in line for more than an hour, it was his turn; but Constable Paul Morgan identified himself as a police officer and demanded that he be allowed to go next. He wanted to make a long distance call, he said.

Bernard told him to wait his turn.

Both men wrestled for the instrument and Bernard won. After losing the handset, the constable pulled his service revolver and shot Bernard in the head.

Residents took him to the Kingston Public Hospital.

While in hospital, Constable Morgan arrested and charged him with assaulting a police officer. Bernard was handcuffed to his hospital bed as he recovered from being shot in the head.

But the tables were soon turned as Bernard’s statement, plus that of witnesses, forced the Jamaica Constabulary Force to investigate the actions of the constable. When investigators closed in on the rouge cop, he stayed off the job and was eventually dismissed from the force because of his prolonged absence from work.

Constable Morgan left the island shortly after.

In its October 2004 ruling, the Privy Council upheld the decision of the local Supreme Court which, in 1997, had ruled that Bernard should receive substantial compensation for his ordeal.

The government offered him $2.5 million, which it said was simply a humanitarian gesture and not any acceptance of liability. The cop, the government’s legal team argued, had been off-duty at the time of the shooting and the state was therefore not liable for his actions.

Bernard took the matter to the Law Lords for them to decide.

The Privy Council agreed with Bernard’s legal team in a landmark ruling, and upheld the Supreme Court’s decision. He was awarded compensation, plus interest.

The ruling, the Jamaican government hinted shortly after it was handed down, would likely make it easier to hold the state responsible for the illegal acts of its servants, even when they act without the consent of their employer and for their own benefit. Attorney-General A J Nicholson, who said the government had always viewed the lawsuit as a borderline case, said he was not surprised by the verdict.

Expressing gratitude to his family and friends who supported him throughout his ordeal and his long fight for justice, Bernard had a special word of thanks for his lawyers – Norman Harrison, Clyde Williams, Chully Williams, Antonette Haughton and Lord Gifford.

While hinting at some “difficulties” that were “based on principle” with his legal team, he conceded that team members had been of tremendous help.

His goal now is to return home, just as soon as he receives his passport from the British Home Office. “I have learnt a lot through these years of struggles, you know. But, I have to get on with my life now.,” he said.

Even warnings that he should steer clear of the local police when he returns to Jamaica are not enough to sway him. The warnings, he said, have come from a wide cross-section of individuals in the UK and because of them, he is reluctant to have his picture published.

“They are concerned for my safety when I return to Jamaica, because I was not supposed to live to tell the tale of what this policeman did to me,” he said. “So people familiar with the case, lawyers and other court officials, plus other Jamaicans here, have told me to be careful when I come back, because I could become a real target.”

Bernard, who lived in Franklin Town, said he has not dismissed these concerns, but had planned to keep “a low profile anyway”.

– virtuee@jamaicaobserver.com