A bench warrant has been issued by Supreme Court Judge Justice Leighton Pusey to speed up the search for accused St Catherine gangster Phillip Scott following a revelation by his attorney that his client, who is behind bars, cannot be found.

A crestfallen Hugh Thompson, who was slated to make a bail application for Scott in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston on Thursday morning, in appearing empty-handed, told Justice Pusey, “It’s alarming that I don’t know where the prisoner is.” He further expressed trepidation at the thought of facing the relatives of the accused man with that detail. “I don’t know if I can face my client’s relatives,” Thompson told the court, noting that the relatives would need answers regarding the bail procedure.

“I respect the justice system but for me to tell my clients that I don’t know, the court doesn’t know where he is, that’s not something I want to do,” Thompson said Thursday.

Justice Pusey, noting that the court could not be blamed, said while the police have their flaws and have been flayed for dropping the ball on occasion, it was a question of being under-resourced.

“The court knowing is not very important; the police knowing would be very helpful. But I have said very frankly here, and the police would know, when they do foolishness I cuss them. However, one has to understand that what you are talking about are resources. Think about it; if you think about where the police stations, for example, are in western Kingston, those police stations are the same police stations from I went to primary school in Denham Town, the same police station is there from when I was in primary school when half of the people in this room were not born,” Justice Pusey noted.

The population of Spanish Town and its environs, he said, has tripled since he worked there as a clerk of court in 1988, “and you had one ‘deggeh deggeh’ (colloquial term for single) police station that they had in those days, since then and the numbers of officers not significantly increased. When it comes to police, the fact is we don’t give them the resources; if you want me to start on the resources we have in the court I could start on that also; it’s the same thing,” the senior jurist stated.

“The police ought to be able to have a computerised system which says Phillip Scott was at Old Harbour. If we are going to move him from Old Harbour to ‘Hundred Man’ and so when he is to appear and we want to find out where Phillip Scott is, once you put in Phillip Scott and the date of birth, it will tell them where he is. So yes, it is distressing that they don’t have things like that but that’s the resources that we give them,” Justice Pusey added.

He, in the meantime, told the attorney that it was unlikely the application would have succeeded and, if so, not before the new year.

“You can tell your client’s family that even if you got to make the bail application there would have been a very good chance that he would have spent the time in prison and that’s not a lie because, based on what I see that he is charged with, a court in considering bail would have to take into consideration that the person is not necessarily the person who committed the offence but with freedom may have access and other things that they can do to organise others and command others. So, therefore, he is part of a group and if these people are crucial to the group and they are outside, even if they are not the ones carrying the guns and doing those kinds of things [they can cause mayhem],” Justice Pusey stated.

“There are persons charged with these kinds of offence who, whilst they are in custody, are almost as active as persons who are outside. You can tell the clients that in any case this was going to be a very difficult battle and after Christmas they may have a better opportunity with the passage of time rather than at this stage. I am not making a decision; I have not looked at the file closely enough to do that. I am merely saying to you that you can indicate to the family of the accused that based on the seriousness of the offence, the situation would be [difficult],” he said further.

Added Justice Pusey: “We don’t have the accused, we don’t know where he is, we are unlikely to get him tomorrow and even if we get him tomorrow, in those circumstances, to get bail and those things, I don’t know. The courts, sometimes, are reluctant to grant bail at this time of year.”

Scott and another accused were in August last year charged by the St Catherine South police after being implicated in various crimes, including murder, in Portmore. The men were charged after being named among a group of seven as persons of interest by the police in connection to crimes in the Gregory Park area.

According to the website of the Supreme Court, where a litigant has missed a court date a bench warrant or warrant of disobedience of summons may be issued. The execution of these warrants may also be stayed and further stayed based on the particular circumstances.