The Justice for Carolina Action Group has provided an update following its meeting with the Chief Minister and recent media comments by the Commissioner of Police.

The group says it decided not to meet the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, on the 26th November, to allow him time to prepare a written reply to its letter. The group’s letter called on the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to consider resignation or the holding of a public inquiry. The Group has also questioned comments made by the Police Commissioner in his recent GBC News radio interview.

A spokesperson continued: “The Group restates its aim to seek public answers to what has happened. It does not wish to detract from that singular aim by discussing the Chief Minister’s as yet unknown conclusions behind closed doors. The Group will decide the best approach after receiving his reply but does not want his involvement to become a substitute for a public inquiry.

“In the Police Commissioner’s recent radio interview, he said that the DPP would have made “sound decisions with the information that he would have had available at the time”.

“The source of that information must have been only the police. The police had done its job in gathering the evidence and, one assumes, providing it all to the DPP before the first trial which led to the conviction of Real Lishman for murder.

“Accordingly, on the day the retrial was due to begin, that information should not have been so materially different as to lead to accepting a manslaughter plea, bearing in mind the first conviction was overturned on a technicality.

“Certainly, no mention of new evidence was made in court to support the change of plea, despite the Police Commissioner’s comments and the Attorney General’s reference to “available new evidence” in his recent public statement.

“Surely, that the facts known to the DPP may have changed so significantly, and the reason for that, are also matters for the public inquiry to investigate.”