THE Court of Appeal yesterday granted final leave for attorneys representing the mother of Janice Allen, the inner-city teen girl who was fatally shot by the police seven years ago, to take its case to the London-based Privy Council.

Millicent Forbes’ legal team is appealing the Court of Appeal’s decision, rejecting a request for judicial review of the circumstance leading to the acquittal of the cop, Rohan Allen, who shot the 13-year-old Denham Town Kingston resident in the back during an alleged shoot-out with gunmen.

The appellant is seeking a review of the not guilty verdict in the Portland Circuit Court in favour of the cop, on the ground that the verdict was obtained by fraud on the part the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the court and that the course of justice was perverted.

Allen was acquitted in 2004 when the crown informed the court that it would not continue its case against him based on the fact that Allen was not placed on an identification parade, and that the evidence of the victim’s sister, the only eyewitness, was not useful. It said, too, that the book documenting that the cop was in possession of the gun used to kill the teen was destroyed by a fire and that the investigating officer was off the island.

Due to the circumstances outlined, Justice Lloyd Hibbert instructed the jurors to enter a formal verdict of not guilty.

In a release to the media yesterday, the human rights group Jamaicans For Justice said the ruling that now allows the case to be taken to the Privy Council was a welcome development in a case “that cries out for judicial intervention in order to appropriately address the terrible injustice which was unleashed”.

“.This terrible injustice was not only unleashed on Janice Allen, her family and the public, but also on the integrity of the justice system,” said the rights group.

Yesterday, after final leave was granted to take the case before the Privy Council, Allen’s mother broke down in court and wept openly.

“For seven years I am going to court and I just did not know what the decision would have been,” Forbes told the Observer.

Forbes tearfully added: “I’m just imagining what she would look like today… what she would be doing today.”

Allen, who was attending high school at the time of her death, would have turned 21 yesterday.