Hilaire (left) and Hathaway
(SNO) — Former High Commissioner of Saint Lucia to the United Kingdom (UK), Dr. Ernest Hiliare, believes that the killing of a UK national here will place the island’s justice system under the microscope by the British government.
The body of British national and longtime Saint Lucia resident, Robert ‘Bob’ Hathaway, was discovered with “apparent wounds” in his residence in Piat, Grand Riviere, Gros Islet by a neighbour last week.
Since this is not the first time that Saint Lucia had to deal with the killing of nationals from the UK, Hilaire is of the opinion that the latest incident will generate renewed interest.
“All of that shows that the British government and the British public expect the highest standards of policing and forensic work to ensure that whoever is responsible for those acts are brought to justice,” he said at a recent press conference. “It has continued to be a soft spot and yet again with another British national, unfortunately and regrettably, losing his life in Saint Lucia, I am sure it is going to revive the interest of the British government into the criminal justice system in Saint Lucia.”
He said more work needs to be done to improve the justice system, saying it has deteriorated even more since 2016.
“We heard talks that once there was a new DPP (director of public prosecution), all those matters would have been dealt with,” Halaire said. “We are going on a second year of the DPP and they still have those outstanding matters.”
He stated that it will interesting to see whether the Minister of National Security will address the matter in the next few days on how Saint Lucia will deal with it.
“Certainly from our experience we know that it is always a matter of grave concern when a national, particular in this case a British national, loses his life,” Hilaire said.
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