Magistrate criticises delay in robbery case

A magistrate has criticised the five-year delay in police investigators completing disclosure after a complainant said she could no longer remember the incident and did not wish to proceed.

Magistrate Jared Richards made the comments from the Bench as Jafari Ricardo Maxwell, now 27, returned to the District ‘A’ Traffic Court on several charges arising from an alleged incident on May 5, 2021.

The magistrate said: “The accused has to be afforded their rights and cannot be coming all the time for hear ‘no file, no file, no file’. Look here we have a matter where one of the complainants has come and said she does not want to give evidence as she cannot remember because it was so long ago. Five years! It is not fair to the complainant, and it is not fair to the accused.”