AfriKa CRY BLOOD

The question of how I’Akobi met his death has still been left unanswered after approximately 10 months of deliberations both inside and out of court. Although the coroner had dismissed the idea of I’Akobi going to the cliff with the intention of taking his own life, the verdict of misadventure is still debatable.

In her context it was defined as the act of running from the police which inadvertently resulted in his death. Our family vehemently refutes the coroner’s claim in this regard; as the act of running towards what the police perceived to be a 60 ft. drop head first with hands outstretched in this ‘mad’ dash for freedom quintessentially describes the act of suicide.

Although the coroner removed the police’s postulations of why he had taken his life that being (depression, homosexuality, madness and drug association), she inadvertently or intentionally accepted the single report submitted by Headley and Walkes as the irrevocable truth. (more…)

LEAVING THE COURT: Constable Anthony Walkes, followed by chief investigator into the I’Akobi Maloney death, ASP Curwen Harvey, and Sergeant Wingrove Headley. Walkes and Headley were the two officers who were with Maloney when he allegedly jumped off a cliff.

“WHAT REASON would the police have to harass I’Akobi Maloney? asked police presenter Station Sergeant Martin Jones on Monday when he delivered his address to coroner Faith Marshall-Harris.

“A man who was so intelligent. He was not a criminal. He did not have any convictions. He was not a person who was wanted by the police so we see no reason why the police would go after him,” Jones stated.

He submitted that the reason why Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Constable Anthony Walkes gave their statements 13 days after the incident, was because both officers were traumatised after Maloney pulled away from them and jumped over the cliff.

“They were totally traumatised over what happened on that day. No police officer would have been able to give a statement,” Jones declared, pointing out that the station diary did contain an account of the incident the day after. (more…)

ATTORNEYS Andrew Pilgrim (right) and David Comissiong (second right) speaking to Mandela Maloney, brother of deceased I’Akobi Maloney, as a friend and his mother Marguerita Maloney look on.

DID police officers engage in profiling when they encountered I’Akobi Maloney, a six-foot Rastafarian standing alone on a secluded cliff?

Was there some level of aggression or conflict between them and that Rastaman?

Was he pushed or was he trying to escape?

These were scenarios which attorneys for the Maloney family, Andrew Pilgrim and David Comissiong, submitted to coroner Faith Marshall-Harris during their addresses, when the inquest into the 23 year-old man’s death resumed in the coroner’s court yesterday.

They asked the coroner to reject the evidence of the two police officers Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Constable Anthony Walkes who were with Maloney when he allegedly jumped off a 50-ft cliff to his death.

Comissiong told the court that given that the police had received a report about a boat, a Rastaman and drugs in the area that it was fair to assume they went to Land Lock, St Lucy, “all keyed up”. (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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)