Reporter barred from Court of Appeal

Last Thursday, the Court of Appeal began to adjust to a more normal post-Irma schedule and hosted a full sitting at the BVI International Arbitration Centre in the Ritter House.

When this reporter arrived to cover those matters, however, she was barred from entering. An assistant at the centre could not give further details about why any of the specific cases would be closed, but said her supervisor, who she declined to identify, had made the decision to deny access.

The chief registrar for this jurisdiction — Erica Smith Penn — and the chief registrar for the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in St. Lucia did not respond to requests for comment.

Though High Court justices in the territory have a lengthy history of preventing media members from entering sex crime cases, the Appeals Court has rarely if ever done so. Moreover, the vast majority of the matters scheduled for last week did not involve a sexual offence.