AfriKa CRY BLOOD

THE POLICE INVESTIGATOR who carried out the investigations into the death of I’Akobi Maloney said yesterday he was not concerned that the statements of the two police officers who were with Maloney when he died, were identical.

Assistant Superintendent Curvan Harvey told the coroner’s inquest investigating the young man’s death that he was more concerned about the typographical errors contained in the statements.

At the time he was being questioned by Andrew Pilgrim who is representing the Maloney family. (more…)

Harvey (centre) leaving the inquest yesterday evening followed by Headley (left) and Walkes. Picture by Sandy Pitt.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Curvan Harvey was grilled by attorney Andrew Pilgrim yesterday when he gave evidence at the Coroner’s Inquest into the death of 23-year-old I’Akobi Maloney.

ASP Harvey was the senior officer who carried out the investigations into the incident. He was questioned extensively about how he conducted the investigations and the statements he obtained, particularly those from the two police officers, Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Constable Wendell Walkes, who were with Maloney when he allegedly jumped off a 50ft cliff at Land Lock, St Lucy.

He was also criticised by the attorney for failing to carry out a scientific examination of the firearms which were issued to the two officers.

I’AKOBI MALONEY was actively searching for another job.

His younger brother, Mandela Maloney, disclosed this at the Coroner’s Inquest into his death on Monday.

He told the court that his brother, who obtained an engineering degree at the St Augustine Campus in Trinidad was “dissatisfied with the conditions at the Arawak Cement Plant” and felt that the conditions there were not challenging enough.

Mandela pointed out that his brother started developing asthma and sinusitis and he believed it was because of the dust at the St Lucy plant. (more…)

AN ATTORNEY has suggested that police officers who were dispatched to Land Lock, St Lucy on the day I’Akobi Maloney died conspired to say they did not see how he died.

Andrew Pilgrim, who is representing the Maloney family, made this comment after Constables Anderson Ellis and Kevin Boyce said they did not focus on Land Lock on June 17, even though they were each in close proximity to the area.

Ellis said he was dispatched to Cove Bay and that he was focussing on a white boat which was out at sea.

He stated that he heard Sergeant Wingrove Headley transmitting on the VHF radio that he had Maloney in custody but he never looked over to Land Lock which was next to Cove Bay because he was busy looking at the boat. (more…)

CORONER Faith Marshall-Harris yesterday appealed to persons who were “sprinkling dust” around the court to desist from this habit.

She made the request when the inquest into the death of I’Akobi Maloney continued yesterday at the Coroners Court.

Stating that she was trying her best to conduct the inquest fairly, Marshall-Harris told the court: “I don’t like it and I wish it would stop, the situation of persons sprinkling dust or whatever it is over the court office. Please desist from doing it. It is defacing and littering Government property. It is not desirable.”

She also asked persons not to bring signs and slogans into the court.

“I do not think it is appropriate. Please let us operate with some degree of professional objectivity,” she stated.

CORONER Faith Marshall-Harris said she summoned two employees at the Arawak Cement Plant to give evidence at the inquest into the death of I’Akobi Maloney because she had been receiving anonymous reports that they were involved in a relationship with the deceased.

Process engineers James Walker and Jason Collymore both gave police statements denying that they were involved in a homosexual relationship with the 23-year-old scholar who police say jumped over a cliff to his death on June 17 last year. (more…)

I’AKOBI MALONEY was yesterday described as very creative, intelligent and someone who was not impulsive.

Best friends Ayesha Delpeche and Renaldo Depeiza both gave evidence at the Coroner’s inquest into the tragic death of the young man.

Delpeche said she had known Maloney for about six years. She said that while he never expressed any concerns about his work to her she was not surprised to learn that he had resigned from his job.

“He was a very creative individual. I know he was interested in exploring creative things and he use to go around people who were poets and musicians”, she stated. (more…)

by MARIA BRADSHAW

CORONER Faith Marshall-Harris may revisit the locus in quo at Landlock, St Lucy, where I’Akobi Maloney met his death, to clarify the geography of the area.

From the start of the inquest witnesses have been referring to Landlock as either Cove Bay or Little Bay, areas on either side of Land Lock, and the coroner believes that this may have led to confusion about where Maloney died.

She made this observation on Monday while she continued the inquest into the young man’s death. (more…)

I’AKOBI MALONEY “jumped” 50 feet down from a cliff at Land Lock, St Lucy, and not 80 feet as originally stated by police.

The correct measurement was given by Sergeant Roger Mayers, a scenes-of-collision reconstructionist.

Mayers, who was deemed an expert witness by Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris, testified during the inquest into Maloney’s death on Monday and produced a sketch he made of the scene detailing all the relevant measurements.

He told the court that he reconstructed the scene on August 6, as pointed out to him by Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Constable Wendell Walkes, the two policemen who were with Maloney when he “jumped” over the cliff. (more…)

CORONER FAITH MARSHALL-HARRIS again expressed concern about two identical statements given by two police officers who testified on Monday during the inquest into the death of 23-year-old I’Akobi Maloney.

Sergeant Trevor Reece and Constable Sandra Dottin were the two police officers who visited Marguerita Maloney’s home on June 17, to inform her about the death of her son.

When they took the witness stand they each read individual statements which were so identical that it prompted attorney-at-law Andrew Pilgrim to ask them if they wrote the statements together.

While both officers denied doing so, Coroner Marshall-Harris was very critical about the similarity in police officers’ statements.

“They are identical word for word,” she stated. (more…)

A THREAT has been made against one of the police officers who was with I’Akobi Maloney at Land Lock, St Lucy, when he died.

The DAILY NATION understands that a stone was thrown through the window of Acting Sergeant Walter Headley’s home last week, wrapped in newspaper with the words: “You are a dead man Mr Headley”, written on it.

According to a senior police officer, the newspaper also carried a report of Headley’s testimony at the Coroner’s Inquest into Maloney’s death.

The police are now investigating the matter. (more…)

by MARIA BRADSHAW

MEMBERS of the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation Inc. (CRO) offered a libation at Land Lock, St Lucy, yesterday, giving up prayers for their deceased brethren I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney.

About 50 Rastafarians, including Maloney’s mother Marguerita and brother Mandela, gathered on the cliff where the 23-year-old former Barbados Exhibitioner was said to have jumped 80 feet down to his death.

There they prayed, chanted and sang for close to an hour. They also held hands in a circle shouting “Haile Selassie I” and”Jah Rastafari” as individual members offered prayers for Maloney’s family and for justice to prevail. They also walked three laps around in a circle, singing and chanting all the while. (more…)

I’AKOBI MALONEY did not sustain a single broken bone after falling 80 feet from a cliff to his death.

But pathologist, Dr Carl Winskog said that was not unusual.

“You would assume there would be broken bones, but that is not a certain fact,” he stated under cross examination by Andrew Pilgrim.

He explained that the absence of broken bones could be for a number of reasons including how the body fell and the surface it fell on. But he admitted that if it was a hard surface like a rock the chances of broken bones would be higher, although he pointed out that the waves could have cushioned the blow to Maloney’s body.

Dr Winskog reported that there was damage to Maloney’s abdomen and he also had a ruptured liver. (more…)

CORONER FAITH MARSHALL-HARRIS chastised a police officer for failing to make written notes surrounding the death of 23-year-old I’Akobi Maloney.

During his testimony on Thursday, Police Constable Wendell Walkes told the coroner that he did not make any notes because the incident was clear in his mind.

But Coroner Marshall-Harris told the detective that it was a matter of credibility and not simply having a good a memory. (more…)

by MARIA BRADSHAW

CORONER FAITH MARSHALL-HARRIS is “desperately searching” for corroborating evidence in the unnatural death of I’Akobi Maloney.

But she will not get it from the two police officers who were the only ones with the 23-year-old scholar when he died.

She made this observation as she conducted an inquest into Maloney’s death on Thursday, interrupting attorney-at-law Andrew Pilgrim’s cross-examination of one of the police officers, Constable Wendell Walkes. (more…)

by MARIA BRADSHAW

A DIARY ENTRY supposedly written by I’Akobi Maloney on the day he reportedly jumped off an 80-foot cliff in St Lucy to his death was presented to the coroner’s court yesterday.

Police handwriting expert Nola Murphy read out the entry to the court which was written on pages June 17 and June 18, in the black diary said to have been recovered from a black haversack he had on the day he died.

Murphy, who carried out a handwriting analysis of the diary with a specimen of another document written by Maloney and bearing his signature, testified that it was highly probable Maloney wrote the diary entry.

In it was written: (more…)

by MARIA BRADSHAW

A PSYCHIATRIST who examined a diary entry believed to have been written by I’Akobi Maloney on the day he died has deduced from his writings that he was “troubled”.

However, Dr. Ermine Belle, senior consultant psychiatrist at the Psychiatric Hospital, said she could not say the 23-year-old, who reportedly leapt off an 80-foot cliff to his death, was suicidal. (more…)

I’AKOBI MALONEY’S FATHER admitted to the coroner’s inquest investigating his son’s death, that he once received psychiatric treatment but said he had never attempted suicide.

David Maloney, of 6th Avenue, New Orleans, St Michael, said he received this treatment back in the 1980s.

“There was a time in the 1980s when I wasn’t feeling very well and I was sent there (Psychiatric Hospital) for observation and a chemical imbalance was the reason they gave,” he said. (more…)

RASHIDA FRANCIS, an employee of the Government Forensics Laboratory, testified Monday that the Maloney family examined I’Akobi Maloney’s body when they should not have done so.

Francis told the Coroner’s Court that she was at the Government Forensics Centre when she spoke to Station Sergeant Morris on the telephone about Maloney’s body. At that time the station sergeant told her that Maloney’s mother was at the Crab Hill Police Station.

She was surprised when about an hour later, Marguerita Maloney turned up at the laboratory saying she came to identify the body. However, she informed her that she would have to bring her son’s identification card and hers as well.
(more…)

ACTING SERGEANT Wingrove Headley admitted to Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris that he made an error in his statement which he gave about the death of I’Akobi Maloney.

In that statement, Headley wrote that after Maloney fatally jumped off a cliff he took possession of his haversack which he said “contained the same black pants and grey shirt” and other items.

But the coroner drew it to his attention that he had previously said in his statement that Maloney put on those clothes in his presence and she asked him to clarify what he meant.

The officer explained that he meant that it was the bag which contained the clothes which Maloney had put on and that it was an error for him to use the word “same”. (more…)

A telephone operator in the Police Control Room said she received a telephone call from an unknown man on June 17, informing her that he had spotted a “Rastaman” standing on a cliff at Coves Bay, St Lucy.

Grace Boyce-Codrington said the caller also stated that he had seen a boat at sea in the same area.

Boyce-Codrington was giving evidence at the Coroner’s Court during the inquest into the death of I’Akobi Maloney, who police testified jumped over a cliff at Land Lock, St Lucy, and died.

She said she received the call around 16:43 hours and immediately relayed the information to a Sergeant Browne, whom she overheard contacting the various agencies and stations, including Crab Hill and District “E”.

The telephone operator also told the court that three minutes after receiving the call the same man called back to thank her for the police’s quick response to the scene. (more…)

THE POLICE OFFICER who dealt with I’Akobi Maloney minutes before he died, said yesterday that he and his colleague discussed what they were going to write in their statements surrounding Maloney’s death.

When Andrew Pilgrim, who is representing the Maloney family, asked Acting Sergeant Walter Headley why he and Constable 1320 Walkes’ statements were identical, Headley  said the two of them “had a discussion”

However, he denied suggestions by Pilgrim that they agreed to write exactly the same words or and that they copied each other’s words. His explanation for the identical statements was that “we saw the same thing”. (more…)

by Maria Bradshaw (Nation Newspaper)

I’AKOBI MALONEY ran from two police officers and casually jumped off an 80-foot cliff at Land Lock, St. Lucy.

That was what Acting Sergeant Walter Headley told the Coroner’s Court yesterday.

The police officer described how Maloney stood on the cliff in an X position - with his hands outstretched and feet spread - then ” without hesitation” jumped off, landing 80 feet down on what Headley called a shelf.

The police officer said that despite efforts by the police to get his attention, the young man proceeded to roll off the shelf into the choppy sea where he became trapped between rocks and was battered by the sea. (more…)

by MARIA BRADSHAW

Cops search room after threat to Coroner

POLICE OFFICERS searched the Coroner’s Court yesterday as well as persons entering the courtroom, following reports that a verbal threat was made against Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris.

The court resumed its investigation into the death of I’Akobi Maloney yesterday.

It took a 15-minute break just after noon but before Marshall-Harris could return to the to the bench, a constable asked everyone to leave the court before he and a female police officer proceeded to carry out a search inside the courtroom.

The two officers then began frisking everyone entering the court. (more…)

by Barbados Advocate

THE Coroner’s Court enquiring into the death of engineer I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, convenes next Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the locus at Landlock, St Lucy.

This was yesterday stated by Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris at the end of the second day’s hearing at the Coroner’s Court, Roebuck Street.

Maloney, 23, of Reed Street, City, died earlier this year on June 17 at Landlock, St Lucy.

The inquest opened last Monday and so far has heard 13 witnesses including the first of two officers who responded to the call on June 17, acting Sergeant, Wingrove Headley.  Inspector Martin Jones is presenting the witnesses, while attorneys David Comissiong, Andrew Pilgrim and Ajamu Boardi are representing Maloney’s family.

by Heather Greenidge (Advocate)

NEITHER of the two police officers who were first on the scene at Landlock, St. Lucy touched I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney.

That’s according to the evidence yesterday of acting Sergeant Wingrove Headley, who also told the inquest into the death of Maloney that neither he nor colleague, Police Constable Walkes “had any physical contact” with Maloney.

“There was no verbal confrontation with him, we did not push him over and we did not cause him to jump,” the policeman added. (more…)

by Barbados Advocate

WHEN a forensic pathologist performed a post mortem on the body of 23-year-old engineer I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, among other things, his lungs were inflated.

That was te evidence of Dr. Carl Winskog of the Government Forensic Sciences Centre at the Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Maloney, formerly of Reed Street, City.

The forensic pathologist said that on June 20, 2008 when he performed the post mortem, he also found blunt trauma to the head, multiple lacerations to the head, arms and legs, and a laceration to the liver. He attributed the cause of death to drowning. (more…)

by Barry Alleyne

THE LEGAL TEAM representing the family of former Barbados Exhibition winner I’Akobi Maloney is exploring the possibility of having his body exhumed, so a secondary post-mortem can be done independently to prove cause of death.

Attorney-at-law Andrew Pilgrim, who is working in conjunction with David Comissiong, explained yesterday his legal squad was not on a witch-hunt of the Royal Barbados Police Force, but simply seeking to “cover all bases” in determining how the 23-year-old Maloney died.

Maloney died on June 17 this year, a few hours after tendering his resignation at the Arawak Cement Plant in St Lucy, where he was employed as a trainee engineer. (more…)

I’AKOBI MALONEY “shafted” his job for health reasons, the former Barbados Exhibition winner’s mother told a Coroner’s Inquest yesterday.

And according to Marguerita Maloney, her son, though being ill two weeks before his death, was not depressed, and had even suggested he would start on a career in the “arts”, through rhythm poetry and chanting, after giving up his employment with the Awarak Cement Plant.

Maloney, who testified her son always had “sinus problems”, said he informed her he would resign before the job caused his death from constant inhalation of cement dust. (more…)

I’AKOBI MALONEY was yesterday described as a trusted worker who impressed his superiors, and had never shown signs of depression or discontent on the job.

He was even cool and calm as he gave up his career.

Maloney’s two immediate supervisors at the Arawak Cement Plant, and a workmate who may have been one of the last persons he spoke to before his death, all said the young man was “quiet and private” and acted quiet, calm, and cheerful on the day he resigned, and later died. (more…)