By Karen Smith Violent criminals are quite literally being allowed to get away with murder because the Police service and judicial system in Bermuda is riddled with abuse and inefficiencies, it has been claimed.

The probe into the handling of serious crimes on the Island heard defence lawyer Marc Telemaque claim yesterday that Police officers regularly suggested suspects plead guilty to a lesser charge, without having thoroughly investigated the case and collected evidence. He alleged that officers frequently used oppressive methods to obtain confessions, including violent beatings, and said the rank structure within the Police service bared little resemblance to the responsibilities carried out by officers.

Superintendents, he said, could often be found doing the more menial tasks and constables left to make serious decisions, even in the major crime squad.

During the seventh day of The Commission of Inquiry into Serious Crime, Mr.

Telemaque said he believed Governor Thorold Masefield was right to insist that the probe carry a wider remit than the botched Rebecca Middleton case alone.

He said: "The events surrounding the investigation and subsequent handling of the murder of Rebecca Middleton have dominated the airways and would seem to be at the heart of this inquiry.

"I am certain that many will not agree with me, but no specific inquiry into that particular case is warranted, and further, to suggest that the circumstances surrounding it are unique are erroneous.

"All this case has served to do is to crystallise for the public the shortfalls of which we at the defence bar are well aware.'' For example, he said in May of 1994 golf caddy Brian Sherlock was brutally murdered in a car park in the city of Hamilton. And, despite the fact that Police had at least two confessions from suspects taken in October the same year, no charge was laid until 1999.

Criminals are `getting away with murder' One of the accused entered a plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter and received ten years in prison. To date, no other charge has been brought against the other person who confessed, or against a third suspect.

Mr. Telemaque said: "When one compares the two cases, again, we have no one punished for what was a brutal murder.'' Rebecca, 17, from Belleville, Ontario, was raped, tortured and stabbed to death in Ferry Reach in July 1996.

Two men were arrested in connection with her murder. Justis Smith was acquitted of pre-meditated murder after Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux deemed there to be insufficient evidence -- a decision since labelled as "astonishing'' by the Privy Council.

Kirk Mundy was allegedly offered a lesser sentence of accessory after the fact, in return for a guilty plea and information about Smith's involvement.

Detectives have admitted they charged the men on the strength of Mundy's statement alone and before test results and DNA examples had been returned.

Experts later said that two people were likely to have been involved -- one to hold Rebecca down and the other to inflict the torture wounds.

Also, semen found in Rebecca's vagina was later found to belong to Mundy.

However, by then it was too late to change the charge and Mundy was sentenced to just five years for his part in her death, leading to a public outcry about the handing of the case.

But yesterday Mr. Telemaque said what happened in the Middleton case was all too familiar to him.

"The process of plea bargaining officially does not exist in Bermuda, but it does inevitably form part of the criminal justice system here and the counsel do make use of the process to expediate matters,'' he added.

"Problems arise in this area when the Police participate either at the investigatory stage or thereafter.

"I have, in my experience, been made offers by investigating officers, while visiting clients in the cells, of lesser charges in exchange for varying levels of co-operation.'' He said, although he did not enter into these discussions many attorneys did, to the exclusion of prosecutors, so by the time the matter went to court it was a case of fait accompli.

And the lawyer said he believed the scenario was "more widespread than is known''.

He went on to say that in one murder case he was approached by a mere detective constable.

He said: "The investigating officer made it clear that `we would be happy with manslaughter'.'' He said the same happened when he represented one of two men accused in a murder shooting.

The inspector at the time, he claimed, who is now acting Superintendent, tried to convince the lawyer that it would be best if his client assist the Police as they were armed with a confession from his co-accused.

Mr. Telemaque told the hearing: "So eager are the Police to get a confession, any confession, that it is possible they take the theory advanced by a co-accused who is slightly smarter than the average criminal, who opts out of the substantive crime in exchange for a lesser charge and lesser sentence.'' He said the high conviction rate, as a result of such "statement cases'' had bred a void of investigatory prowess and that "the only technique pursued with vigour in the investigation of serious crimes is the obtaining of a confession.'' Mr. Telemaque also said suspects, whether charged or not, were not treated fairly and within the confines of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), which sets out legislation on how evidence should be collected, crimes detected and suspects treated.

During the last few days the hearing has heard how a previous inquiry into the handling of one particular case, carried out in 1997, recommended the use of PACE be implemented "as a priority'' in Bermuda.

It was this lack of legislation, he said, that allowed abuses of power to occur.

Mr. Telemaque claimed yesterday that he was often refused permission to see his clients, which is a suspect's basic right, had obstacles put in his way when trying to speak to detectives or clients, and said Police bail, or any bail, was rarely offered to suspects.

He said it resulted in many suspects being sent to Westgate on remand, where they were kept in cells for 22 hours a day, when they were still, by law, presumed innocent.

He added: "The net result...is the creation of an atmosphere of oppression and uncertainty, which often results in unreliable confessions given in circumstances, which, when taken together, taint the entire investigation at its inception.'' But Mr. Telemaque said the investigation into serious crimes on the Island was "symptomatic of a criminal justice system in desperate need of overhaul.'' He added: "The courts, the Police service, the Department of Public Prosecutions office, and even the defence bar, are in need of some 20th century updates, never mind the 21st.

"The entire system has not progressed with the changes in technology and thinking of the world.

"To achieve the justice required of the system we must legislate these protections as a matter of urgency.'' MURDER MUR CRIME CRM