The post BREAKING NEWS: CCC employee gets bail for removing skull from Choc cemetery appeared first on St. Lucia News Online.
This skull is not the one mentioned in the article below.
A senior Castries Constituency Council (CCC) employee was granted bail when he appeared in court today in connection with the removal of a human skull from the Choc cemetery without a permit.
Vincent Philomen, a resident of Bananes Bay, Castries, was charged with exhumation of human remains under the Burial and Cremation Act of 2016, Section 44.
Reports are that on March 16, 2017, Philomen removed the skull from an area of the cemetery which was being cleared by a backhoe to make space for new tombs/graves.
Philomen is alleged to have taken the skull home, placed it on his balcony to scare people away.
However, he is alleged to have dumped the skull in the sea when news of his misdeed prompted a number of persons to express their concern.
The news soon reached his employer and law enforcement officials who then conducted an investigation.
A meeting was reportedly held between Philomen and the CCC this week.
He was arrested yesterday by a city constable after a search warrant was executed at his home.
In the First District Court today, he was granted $1,000 bail.
Conditions of his bail require him to surrender his travel documents to the court, not to be within 100 metres of the Choc cemetery, not to leave the State without the court’s permission, not to apply for travel documents without the court’s permission, and to report to the Central Police Station every Wednesday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
To date the skull has not been recovered and officials are unable to say which tomb/grave the skull came from.
According to Section 44 of the Burial and Cremation Act of 2016, “(1) A person shall not exhume human remains which have been interred in a burial ground without a removal permit issued under this Act. (2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable to summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years (3) A person may make an application to the minister for a removal permit.
He is scheduled to re-appear in court on May 11, 2017.
Sources told St. Lucia News Online (SNO) that Philomen should have known better because he has been with the CCC for over 10 years.
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