The Court of Appeal overturned a Supreme Court ruling denying bail to man accused of murder because prosecutors relied on “bare, unsubstantiated hearsay” about alleged witness interference, and the judge’s failure to properly consider several factors.

According to President Marva McDonald-Bishop, this amounted to "substantive unfairness" to Kevonne Reid, who is charged in the killing of a woman in November 2019

“While the learned judge was entitled to consider the risk of interference with witnesses and the possibility of obstruction of justice, the weight attached to bare, unsubstantiated hearsay, in the absence of direct evidence which ought reasonably to have been available and which the court had directed should be obtained, was, with respect, misplaced,” McDonald-Bishop explained in a 40-page opinion released on Monday.