POLICE NOT TO BLAME: Coroner rules death by misadventure
by Maria Bradshaw
I’AKOBI MALONEY was not killed by police, neither did he commit suicide. His death was ruled a misadventure.
SERGEANT WINGROVE HEADLEY (right) being escorted into the officer of the Coroner's Court by uniformed officers yesterday.
Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris handed down this decision yesterday six months after the start of the inquiry into the death of the 23-year-old Exhibition winner whom police said jumped off a 50-ft cliff at Landlock, St Lucy, last June 17, as he was about to be escorted to the Holetown Police Station.
The coroner found there was no evidence to substantiate that Maloney had been unlawfully killed by the police or that he committed suicide.
She surmised that Maloney, a Rastafarian, may have felt some form of harassment when the police requested that he accompany them to the station and so “he panicked and made a sudden dash for freedom”.
But while the coroner cited the mutual distrust between the Rastafarian community and the police and called for improved relations between the two, the verdict was not accepted by the many Rastafarian brethren who turned out yesterday.
They gathered in the courtyard surrounding Maloney’s grieving mother, Marguerita, and let it be known that there would be no peace between them and the police.
Marshall-Harris spent close to two hours reviewing the case and analysing the evidence.
In looking at the timelines from the time Maloney resigned his job at the Arawak Cement Plant, arrived at Landlock, encountered the police and then allegedly jumped over the cliff, she found the window of opportunity was “a mere five minutes”.
Choppy waters
She asked: “What can the police officers do to Maloney in five minutes to procure his death? As such, she said that to suggest that the two police officers, Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Constable Anthony Walkes, aimed to harm Maloney would be unjust.
She further found that the many lacerations on his body were as a result of the battering he received while in the choppy waters.
In terms of the lone eyewitness, Anthony Collymore, the coroner said it was “very unfortunate” that he looked away from his window at the critical moment when Maloney jumped, but she accepted his evidence that he believed all was well because Maloney was getting dressed.
The coroner also dismissed any suggestions that the deceased was a homosexual, stating: “We can find no such indication by any written or spoken word by Maloney.”
She deduced from the writings in his diary that he was a “red blooded heterosexual” who was preoccupied with women. “His poetry revealed a deep and abiding interest in women and we reject the evidence regarding homosexuality,” she stated, while also finding that allegations of a fight at the Cement Plant on the day he died between him and his co-worker were without merit.
In terms of the writing from the diary which were described by the psychiatrist Dr Ermine Belle as “the writings of a troubled man”, the coroner stated that the court was not satisfied that Maloney intended to commit suicide on that day.
“If he was going to kill himself there would be no need to resign,” he stated adding that he was in no way fatalistic.
On June 17 police received reports of possible drug activity at Landlock, St Lucy. When they arrived at the scene they found Maloney, who had resigned from his job and was meditating at the secluded spot. While taking into custody for further questioning, the police said he suddenly made a dash and jumped over the cliff.
The inquiry first started last November.
Tags: Anthony Collymore, Anthony Walkes, Arawak Cement Plant, choppy sea, Coroner, Curvan Harvey, custody, decision, diary, distrust, Dr. Ermine Belle, drugs, Faith Marshall-Harris, harassment, Holetown Police Station, homosexual, improved relations, lacerations, Marguerita Maloney, misadventure, poetry, Rastafari community, sudden dash for freedom, verdict, Wingrove Headley