A senior detective yesterday defended the length of time it took for scenes of crime personnel to begin the processing of alleged crime scenes in Tivoli Gardens in the wake of the May 2010 operation to apprehend Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

Earlier this week, former Public Defender Earl Witter testified that personnel of the constabulary’s Scenes of Crime Unit took long in processing areas where bodies had been removed from. He said this was only done in early June 2010 on his prompting.

Yesterday, Detective Inspector Devon Harris of the St Catherine Scenes of Crime Unit explained to the Tivoli Enquiry why this was so.

He said that for a scene to be processed, there needed to be calm and peace within a particular area.

He said there were still hostilities in Tivoli Gardens in the week of May 24, 2010.

But Queen’s Counsel Garth McBean asked if it was his information that the area of Tivoli Gardens was under the control of security personnel on May 24. In response, Harris said that even if that was the case, the security forces would still have been in “combat mode”, expecting to be fired upon and wouldn’t be in a position to provide the level of security needed for scenes of crime detectives to conduct their duties.

Additionally, Harris said scenes of crime personnel could not visit an area without being requested to do so by an investigator.

He said earlier during his examination-in-chief, led by attorney Deborah Martin who is representing the Jamaica Constabulary Force, that on May 26, and the following days when he and a team visited Madden’s Funeral Home and May Pen Cemetery — to process bodies believed to have been retrieved from Tivoli Gardens — there was no information as to where in the community the bodies were found and where these people had lived previously.

He said that these factors were critical to processing an alleged scene.

He said that 15 locations where allegations of extra-judicial killings had taken place were eventually processed, but said it was reported to him that nothing of significance was found at some of them. He said that a number of these locations were provided by Witter.

Harris had testified earlier that the bodies at the morgue and cemetery were swabbed for gunpowder residue, but said that the swab results were to be given to the Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI).

However, Linton Gordon, one of the attorneys for the Jamaica Defence Force, said that the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), which took over the probe into the allegations of extra-judicial killings, was responsible for getting the results of the swab tests from the forensic lab.

But INDECOM Commissioner Terrence Williams said that this was the responsibility of the BSI.

However, McBean said he would make efforts to secure the results.

The enquiry is looking into the deaths of dozens of people during the May 2010 operation. Former public defender Witter wrote in his interim report that 76 people died as a result of the operation.

He said there were allegations of extra-judicial killings in relation to 44 of the deceased.

The enquiry continues on Monday.