Senior Police officers protested vigorously to former Attorney General Elliott Mottley when they heard he allowed a suspect in the Rebecca Middleton case to plea to a lesser charge than murder, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Top officers were not consulted about the decision to allow Kirk Orlando Mundy to plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact.

Sources close to the original investigation said leading officers did not know about the crucial decision until after the plea was accepted in court and were "astounded'' by the development.

As pressure grows for a public inquiry into the way the case was handled, senior Police sources are laying the blame for the failure to convict anyone of murdering the 17-year-old Canadian schoolgirl at the Attorney General's Chambers.

The murder in July 1996 caused a wave of negative publicity which undermined Bermuda's fragile tourism industry and Police and the Crown were under pressure to secure an early conviction.

Mundy was jailed for five years in October 1996 for pleading guilty to being an accessary after the fact. The plea was taken before Police had completed forensic tests.

DNA evidence later revealed Mundy's semen inside the dead girl.

On Monday, the Privy Council in London upheld a decision by Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux in December 1998 to acquit Justis Smith of murder on the basis that there was no case to answer.

The Privy Councillors said there was strong circumstantial evidence that Mundy and Mr. Smith were involved in the killing which could have gone to a jury.

However, the Crown did not call Mundy as a witness because his credibility had been undermined.

They said Mr. Justice Meerabux's conclusion that the circumstantial evidence was not strong enough was "surprising'' and "perhaps astonishing''.

The Royal Gazette has learned that the then Police Commissioner Colin Coxall and senior officers personally protested about the decision to put Mundy and Mr. Smith on separate indictments.

The Crown later failed in a bid to retrieve the situation by having Mundy jointly charged with murder along with Mr. Smith.

A source close to the investigation said: "Colin Coxall was extremely concerned that the plea was taken to the lesser offence allowing the indictments against the two defendants to be split.

"Accompanied by other senior officers, he protested personally to the Attorney General at what he saw as a crucial mistake.

Middleton fiasco "By accepting Mundy's plea to the lesser offence, which was taken without the authority of the Police and without consultation with senior officers, the case against Smith was certain to fail.

"Senior officers had conferences with the AG and his staff and the Commissioner appealed to the AG to try to retrieve the situation.

"It was such a crucial case, and a number of people in the Police service were astounded by the way it was handled. It was a total cock-up in the AG's Chambers.'' Meanwhile, Mr. Smith's barrister Elizabeth Christopher has criticised Shadow Home Affairs Minister John Barritt for waiting four years before asking questions about the case.

The United Bermuda Party will appeal to Governor Thorold Masefield to hold a public inquiry if Goverment does not make the request.

Ms Christopher, who supports an inquiry, said yesterday: "Mr. Barritt should have enquired of the AG's chambers (at the time).

"It's a bit rich that a person who was part of the Government of the day should call for an inquiry four years later.

"Why didn't he at the time ask questions about how Police conducted their investigation and how a 17-year-old was charged with pre-meditated murder and a person on bail for armed robbery is charged with accessory after the fact.

"The majority of mistakes were made at the outset and we have to direct our attention to what happened then and find out why we are having the unfortunate consequences we now have.'' Mr. Barritt said he was unable to comment on the case while he was in Government because the legal process was still on-going.