The Cayman Islands Court of Appeal has upheld the decision to keep two convicted murderers in UK prisons, prioritizing national security over family proximity.
(CNS): The transfer of two convicted murderers to the UK to serve their prison time there was not disproportionate, the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal has found.. The court’s decision was the latest instalment of a nearly decade-long legal dispute over the constitutionality and legality of transferring brothers Osbourne Douglas (40) and Justin Ramoon (36) from HMP Northward to jails in Britain.. Douglas and Ramoon are serving life sentences for killing Jason Powery in a
gang-related assassination outside a George Town bar in 2015.. The men were moved to the UK in 2017 because they were perceived as a national security risk.. Since they were transferred, lawyers for the brothers have argued that, under legislation dating back to 1894, this was substantively disproportionate, unjustified interference with their rights to private and family life and to be treated with humanity, and procedurally unfair.. Both men are fathers and have lost contact
with their families over the ensuing years.. Despite valid arguments about the right to a family life, even for dangerous criminals, and their families’ rights, especially the children, to be able to visit and continue a relationship with them, the authorities here have consistently argued that both men are too dangerous, and the risk they pose outweighs even the rights of their children.. In this latest hearing, the judges found that the issue of national
security overrides other considerations.. Much of the evidence to support the claims about the risk these brothers posed, which has been presented behind closed door hearings over the years, was also part of their legal challenges.. The basic allegation is that Douglas was the leader of Cayman’s CMT (Central Military Killers) Gang and Ramoon was a senior and influential member of it.. “They were considered highly dangerous in the local community,” Justice Jack Beatson, who
heard the case with Sir Anthony Smellie and Sir Richard Field, wrote in the ruling published Friday.. “Intelligence had shown that they had been involved in the orchestration of serious gun crime and the importation of guns and drugs from within the prison and attempted to intimidate staff at the prison.” The courts were shown evidence of intelligence on their conduct in prison that linked them to intimidation, manipulation of and threats to staff, plans
to escape and the use of weapons.. It was considered that Douglas’s relocation to the UK would help break his grip on his criminal network and lower the risk to national security here.. Sending Ramoon as well would ensure he did not take his older brother’s place at the head of the gang if Douglas was transferred on his own.. “Assessment of the risk to national security and public safety is well founded, the substantive
grounds are utterly unarguable,” Justice Beatson stated, noting that the judge in the substantial judicial review of the case had found there was a heightened risk at the time the brothers were moved.. This was in light of intelligence indicating a planned escape and an attack on Douglas and Ramoon’s mother’s house.. The allegations regarding continued criminality and the plan to escape custody were all exacerbated by that attack on their family home, triggering fears
of gang violence.. All of these issues were used to establish the national security risk the men posed.. Their lawyers had unsuccessfully argued that the risks were exaggerated and the brothers shouldn’t be additionally punished by being moved so far from their families on the grounds that HMP Northward is not a secure facility.. However, the courts have found that the governor, who made the application to the UK for the transfer, could not be
held responsible at the time for the inadequacy of prison security, given that Northward is only a Category 3 jail.. The appeal court supported the original judge’s position that the removal of the brothers was within the range of reasonable options open to the authorities here based on the security concerns.. The most challenging problem to the removal has always been the separation from their families and the impact that has had on their children..
But the appeal court supported the position taken by the judge in the original judicial review, who found that the brothers were not the primary caregivers of their children and their interests were outweighed by the competing public interests in national security and public safety.. The court found that the children’s “best interests” had to be “weighed against the countervailing and incommensurate public interest factors”, namely, “national security and protection of the public in the
Cayman Islands”.. As he dismissed the appeal, Justice Beatson concluded that the assessment of the risk to national security and public safety was well founded and highly persuasive.. See the full ruling below