The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Police Service Commission has referred Shane Gibson’s criticism that an officer who played a key investigatory role in his criminal case last year has been promoted to the Police Complaints Unit.

Rev Dr Philip Stubbs, chairman of the commission, signed a letter informing Mr Gibson of this last week, saying the matter has been referred to the unit for immediate action. Yesterday Mr Gibson said: “Depending on the outcome, I intend to take this all the way to the Privy Council. We cannot allow a few rogue officers to compromise the integrity of the entire Force. We have too many great officers deserving of an earned promotion to allow a self-confessed, twice judicially condemned officer to be promoted.”

Eyebrows were raised when Deborah Thompson was promoted to superintendent last month. She was among several dozen senior officers promoted to a higher role.

She faced criticism after it was revealed that she initiated a meeting between two main prosecution witnesses to synchronise their statements before Mr Gibson’s bribery trial. She admitted during the trial that she acted improperly but said what she did was a common practice.

In his letter to the PSC, Mr Gibson wrote: “The decision to promote her was made even though she received condemnation by Justice Indra Charles in a ruling dated 8th March 2019 (in my constitutional application to quash the indictment against me) where Justice Charles said: ‘Unkind as it may be, ASP Thompson struck me as an officer with very little investigative skills despite her impressive rank in the RBPF. I say this because prosecution witnesses should not be brought together to discuss their evidence, exchange their account and decide as to what to say and what they should omit to say in their statements and evidence.’”

Mr Gibson’s letter added: “What makes the decision to promote Debra Thompson more egregious is that she admitted that it is common practice for two witnesses to be brought together to synchronise their stories and accounts of matters in dispute. This leads one to believe that my case is not the first time she has been involved in this unethical. . .practice.

“I write to advise if Debra Thompson’s promotion is not rescinded within 14 days of the date of this letter, I will institute proceedings before the Supreme Court for judicial review of the decision to promote Debra Thompson and seek an order of certiorari to quash this recommendation.”