Former legislator Andre Penn was granted bail last week pending his retrial for sex crime charges.
High Court Justice Kelvin John offered Mr. Penn $50,000 bail with one surety, and Mr. Penn has since taken up the offer, according to Patrick Thompson, one of his attorneys.
Mr. Penn had been in prison since he was convicted by a unanimous jury last March of seven counts of indecent assault, three counts of buggery, and two?counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl of or under the age?of 13.
But the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal ruled last week that Mr. Penn’s conviction was “unsafe” because High Court Justice Indra Hariprashad-Charles failed to instruct the jury to take extra care when listening to the alleged victim’s testimony as the law requires when children testify.
After the Jan. 17 ruling, Mr. Penn left the Commercial Court building where the hearing took place and was taken back to Her Majesty’s Prison at Balsam Ghut. But he was out on bail by the end of the week.
During the appeals court hearing, Mr. Penn’s attorney, Edward Fitzgerald, QC, advanced several grounds in the appeal but focused on Ms. Hariprishad-Charles’ jury instructions and her failure to give the required warning. According to section 146 of the territory’s Evidence Act, the trial judge has to warn the jury that the evidence could be unreliable due to the witness’s age; explain “matters that may cause it to be unreliable;” and advise jurors about the need for caution in determining to accept the evidence.