Law Lords free 2 jailed cops

Vijay Bhola and Leon Wiggins were sentenced to six years in jail by Justice Melville Baird in the San Fernando High Court on October 29, 2001 for demanding money with menaces on June 20, 1995.

They appealed to the Court of Appeal. On December 18, 2002, the Court of Appeal comprising Justices Roger Hamel-Smith, Anthony Lucky, and Wendell Kangaloo, dismissed the appeal and ordered that the policemen start their sentences on that day.

On Tuesday, the Privy Council comprising Lords Bingham, Scott, Rodger, Walker and Brown, heard submissions and dismissed the appeal. But the Law Lords ordered that the sentences of the two policemen start from the date of conviction (2001). No written reasons were given.

That meant that Bhola and Wiggins had served out their time by the end of October 2005. The order from the Privy Council was despatched to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who then advised the Commissioner of Prisons that the policemen should be released forthwith.

Bhola and Wiggins walked out of the Maximum Security Prison, Arouca, on Tuesday night and were reunited with their families. They were represented in England by Thomas Rowe, while Peter Knox and John Almeida appeared for the State.

The prosecution’s case was that Bhola, Wiggins, Vishnu Hardial, and Rajendra Singh, who was not tried with them, were participants in a joint enterprise by which money was obtained with menaces.