ACCUSED murderer Mervin Cameron, who has been in custody now for five years without his matter being tried, has won his case in the Constitutional Court, which on Thursday rule that the accused man’s rights to be tried within a reasonable time was violated.

Cameron is to be awarded constitutional damages, however, the amount has not yet been determined.

The accused, who was arrested in February 2013, had filed a constitutional motion in the Supreme Court in April of last year, asking for his immediate release because his constitutional rights were being breached as a result of the delay in his case being tried, hence he was not given a fair trial within a reasonable time.

Consequently, the Constitutional Court, in a 2-1 landmark ruling in the claimant’s favour, declared that Cameron’s constitutional right to be tried within a reasonable time under section 14 (3) has been violated.

The accused was jointly charged with Christopher Wilson for the murder of 43-year-old deputy chief of security at Jamaica Postal Service Barrington Davis and Davis’s female friend Syndia Patricia Barnswell.

The two were kidnapped from Davis’s St John’s Heights home in St Catherine in August 2012 and their bodies found with gunshot wounds in bushes, in Inswood, also in that parish, less than a month later.

Attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman, who represented Cameron, told the Jamaica Observer that he was forced to bring the matter to the Constitutional Court after his client was denied bail and his preliminary hearing in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court had been stalled because of an absence of witnesses.

“When the key witness ran away while being cross-examined by me and the police witnesses and other witnesses stopped coming, the magistrate, Maxine Ellis, refused to give him bail and I took the matter to the Constitutional Court,” Wildman said.

The judges in the Constitutional Court have ordered that Cameron’s bail be reduced and that he report to the nearest police station on Mondays and Sundays. He is also to surrender his travel documents, with a stop order in place.

The court has also ordered that, unless there is earlier intervention by the director of public prosecutions, Cameron’s preliminary hearing must be completed by May 30 and a decision be made as to whether the matter should proceed to trial, failing which Cameron must be released and the charge in the parish court stayed.

Further to that, the judges also ruled that if Cameron’s case is committed for trial or placed before the Circuit Court on a voluntary bill of indictment, his trial must begin before the end of the Hillary Term in April, failing which trial shall be discontinued unless the delay is due to the defence.

“It is recognised that this order may result in the claimant’s case ‘leapfrogging” other matters. However, in the peculiar circumstances of this case, this order is necessary to prevent further breach of the rights of the claimants,” the judges said in the order.

In respect to cost, the judges asked that written submissions be made on the quantum of damages by Cameron’s lawyer on or before April 13 and that the lawyer for the Attorney General of Jamaica should reply by April 27.

Wildman said the ruling was not only a victory for his client who maintains his innocence, but also a very important ruling that will serve as a guideline for other lawyers in treating with breaches of their clients’ constitutional rights.

“It is the first case decided under the new Charter of Rights on Fundamental Freedoms. This is really an important decision which will set the stage for lawyers to be guided on the circumstances under which they can bring a claim under the Constitution,” he said.

“The courts, too, will have to be guided by this case as there are a number of instances where people are complaining that their matters are not being tried in a reasonable time. There are persons who have been in custody for long while, some have even been lost in the system,” said the lawyer.