The ghost of Akiel

THE MERCILESS buggering and murder of 11-year-old Akiel Chambers while he was a guest at a birthday party in Haleland Park in May 1998 is a heinous crime crying out to high heaven for justice. Indeed, the fact that as yet no one has been charged for the gruesome killing of this little boy amounts to a grave indictment of our country’s criminal justice system. It is scandalous, in the first place, that it took as long as five years before an inquest into Akiel’s murder could be held. And nine months after Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls completed that inquiry, we have heard nothing from the police about the progress of their investigations.

After securing the testimony of all the persons involved in the Haleland Park birthday party, the coroner concluded that someone was responsible for Akiel’s death. His report was submitted to the DPP who referred the matter to the Homicide Bureau for further investigations. Since then, all we have had from the police is silence and we are now beginning to despair that the perpetrator of such a vicious crime will actually go unpunished. The buggering and killing of Akiel took place in an upper-class home where the birthday party of an 11-year-old girl was being held; the adults present at the time were a small group of parents and the resident organiser of the function. The next morning Akiel’s body was found in a crouched position in the swimming pool of the home by policemen who had come to investigate after receiving a report that the youngster was missing.

An autopsy performed by Dr Hughvon Des Vignes found semen in  the boy’s rectum as a resuslt of what he described as “constant anal abuse.”  The pathologist concluded that Akiel could have been smothered to death after he was buggered. Now if modern forensic technology had been applied to this case, we believe that most likely the mystery would have been solved as the culprit would have been detected. The established technique involves the matching of DNA of semen with that of male persons involved; a test which has been used successfully in the US, not only to provide prosecutory evidence but also to review the validity of rape convictions. Why wasn’t this technique used in Akiel’s case? The answer to that question was given by an officer of the Forensic Science Centre who testified at the inquest that DNA samples are not kept longer than five years. And since the inquest was being held more than five years after Akiel’s murder, there was no longer any DNA to test.

We are not sure whether we should laugh or cry at such a ridiculous situation. Small wonder that attorney Desmond Allum SC, president of the Criminal Bar Association, on Friday cited the case of Akiel Chambers as an example of the slow pace of justice in the country. Not only did the inquest take so long but it now seems that police investigators are getting nowhere. This newspaper, however, is calling on investigators to redouble their efforts to find Akiel’s killer. The horror of his death continues to haunt us. The youngster went to a birthday party to enjoy himself and, instead, his life was snuffed out in a nightmarish attack by a calculating, cold-blooded bugger. The incidence of murder in our country is a matter of serious concern, but the vicious advantage that was taken over Akiel transcends in its inherent evil the fatal shootings and enraged killings that have become so common. If the police fails to solve this case, it should cause our society to weep.