Shaw & Ors v. R (Jamaica)

Shaw & Ors v. R (Jamaica) [2002] UKPC 53 (15 October 2002)

ADVANCE COPY

Privy Council Appeal No. 67 of 2001

(1) Clifton Shaw

(2) Titus Henry

(3) Morris Boreland

(4) Donovan Mullings and

(5) Junior Wright Appellants

v.

The Queen Respondent

FROM

THE COURT OF APPEAL OF JAMAICA

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JUDGMENT OF THE LORDS OF THE JUDICIAL

COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL,

Delivered the 15th October 2002

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Present at the hearing:-

Lord Steyn

Lord Hoffmann

Lord Hutton

Lord Millett

Lord Scott of Foscote

[Delivered by Lord Hutton]

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On 15 May 1993 Winston Bowers and two children, Nikeisha Samuels and Christopher Grey, were murdered in a house in Spanish Town Road, Kingston, by a number of men. The circumstances of the murders were extremely brutal. Winston Bowers was shot in the back, Nikeisha Samuels was shot in the back of the head and Christopher Grey was shot twice and was stabbed four times.

In addition to the three persons who were murdered a number of other people were present in the house when the murders took place. They were Nicola Bowers, who was the daughter of Winston Bowers and was then aged 13 and the sister of Nikeisha Samuels and Christopher Grey, a man named Neville Johnson, a friend of Winston Bowers, and two other children.

The five appellants were arrested for the murders and, with the exception of Clifton Shaw, they all denied being present in Winston Bowers’ house or any participation in the murders. Clifton Shaw made a statement to the police in which he said that he was there but he did not shoot anyone, and this statement was admitted in evidence at the trial.

At the trial in June 1996 of the five appellants for capital murders in the course of and in furtherance of a burglary the case for the Crown was primarily based on the evidence of Nicola Bowers, who was then aged 16. In her evidence she said that at about 8.30 pm on 15 May 1993 she was at home having dinner and watching television with the three deceased, together with Neville Johnson and two other children, when she saw a group of men come into the yard. She heard shots fired and the men knocked down part of the door and came into the house. She, Nikeisha Samuels and Christopher Grey and the other children hid under a bed and her father, Winston Bowers, and Neville Johnson stayed sitting on a hassock. Her father then ran out of the door. She said that she knew the men who came into the house, they were the five appellants. She knew them by nicknames and she used to see them all regularly in the local area. She said that the appellant, Clifton Shaw, had a knife and that the others had guns. The men turned over the bed under which she was hiding and began to fire and Clifton Shaw then cut her brother’s throat with his knife and another man…

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