I must admit I have been puzzled why the Governor’s Office/FCO went to extraordinary lengths to stop the Report on Operation Tempura from being made public.

Then an email was sent to me that had a plausible theory – I will not name the sender of the email because of what may be pending legal reasons.

The theory is this:

Our previous Governor, Duncan Taylor commissioned, oversaw and signed off on a report that re-investigated the circumstances surrounding the 3rd September 2007 search of the late Desmond Seales’ Cayman Net News office. He did this despite very clear legal evidence that the search was legal including Lyndon Martin’s acquittal and the well-documented advice UK journalist John Evans was given by the top brass of the RCIPS in 2009. Evans and Martin were the two fellows who were asked by the RCIPS to break into Seales’ office because someone in the RCIPS was thought to be supplying Seales with sensitive information.

The only grounds that Taylor could plausibly launch this investigation was a complaint from Tempura advisor legal Martin Polaine who at the time had just been disbarred after a complaint from Justice Alex Henderson.

My email writer alleges the FCO initially refused to accept the complaint until Polaine got a political contact to put pressure on them.

The subjects of the investigation was then RCIPS Commissioner Stuart Kernohan, former Chief Superintendent John Jones and John Evans.

One now has to ask the question were any of these men informed their actions were being re-investigated? The important part being “RE”!

Were any of them interviewed or in any way allowed to contribute to the investigation, or given the opportunity to seek legal advice/representation?

Was the investigation conducted entirely using largely unverified archive material or did they have evidence no one else seems to be aware of?

When the Aina report was completed the contents effectively found the three men guilty of ‘criminal trespass’. And the Aina report appeared to me to be a “report of fact” and not a legal opinion.

If this is so it is a breach of ECHR Article 6, which reads –

3. Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights:

(a) to be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against him;
(b) to have adequate time and the facilities for the preparation of his defence;
(c) to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing or, if he has not sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given it free when the interests of justice so require;
(d) to examine or have examined witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him;
(e) to have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court.

Even though no charges have been brought against these three men there is now a permanent record created showing the three men have committed a criminal offence.

During this time Chief Superintendent John Jones was still employed in that position in the RCIPS.

After the report was executed was Jones further reviewed by the RCIPS Professional Standards Unit?

The secrecy that Taylor went to in conducting this report would appear to be against all human rights.

So did Taylor step outside all recognised legal boundaries and abuse his powers as Governor of the Cayman Islands?

ECHR Article 13 quite clearly provides a remedy if he did:

Article 13 provides for the right for an effective remedy before national authorities for violations of rights under the Convention. The inability to obtain a remedy before a national court for an infringement of a Convention right is thus a free-standing and separately actionable infringement of the Convention.

Can you see another court case coming or monetary redress?

I know I have asked a lot of questions and with no answers.

However, all this does provide a reason why the FCO did not want the Tempura Report made public. A much better reason than the ones the Governor’s Office provided.