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11.29 pm
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Tony Lloyd): I am grateful to the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath), not only for bringing the matter to our attention but for saying what he has said.
We must all agree that even the contemplation of the death of a child is momentous for any parent, and that to experience that is traumatic. If the death is a result of murder--and murder of this kind, such a long way away--that adds to the agony. The House shares the strong sentiments expressed by the hon. Gentleman and his support for his constituent--not as a constituent, but as a mother bereaved. I place on record my respect for his strong commitment to Mrs. Gamson's concerns.
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the tribute that he paid to the work of the Foreign Office and especially of the high commissioner in the Bahamas. The hon. Gentleman was gracious but accurate in his comments about the high commissioner of the Bahamas in Britain, Mr. Foulkes, whom I know well and for whom I have considerable respect.
Let me put matters in context. Since the independence of the Bahamas in 1973, there have been 10 murders of British citizens on the islands. I shall not chronicle details
of them all, except to say that, of those 10 murders, seven were successfully investigated, leading to the prosecution and conviction of those responsible. I shall of course comment on the case of Carole Leach. As the hon. Gentleman compared that with the case of Joanne Clarke, it may be helpful if I say something about that murder and the investigation of it.
As the House has heard, Carole Leach, who had been resident in the Bahamas for six years, was murdered at her home on 22 August 1997. She died from a blow to the head. The CID of the Royal Bahamian police force responded immediately. A reward of US$10,000 for information was offered by a friend of the family. That sum was matched by a further $10,000 reward by the local police. Our high commissioner began to push the commissioner of police for an inquest as early as October 1997, as he clearly thought that the process should be speeded up.
The inquest began only on 3 February 1998, six months after the murder. As the hon. Gentleman told the House, the inquest was adjourned several times before its completion in December 1998. I must place on record my enormous sympathy with Mrs. Gamson over the length of time taken by the coroner to complete the inquest, which we are led to believe was delayed pending the results of forensic tests that were conducted in Miami.
That raises the question of why the tests took so long to complete. The length of time is not acceptable, and I can offer Mrs. Gamson no words that would make her feel that that was anything other than a remarkably extended period, which did nothing to assuage her doubts and concerns about the intent of the authorities to bring matters to a conclusion.
On completion of the inquest, two men were charged with the murder. They were subsequently released when the ruling of the coroner was quashed by the Supreme Court judge. I am told that the Bahamian police are continuing their investigations of the two men, but I cannot give the House any information with respect to their passports or their ability to leave the Bahamas, where their prosecution could successfully take place.
On the first anniversary of Carole Leach's murder, the bodies of Joanne Clarke and Lori Fogelman were found in bushes on the edge of a beach on Paradise island. Those deaths received extensive publicity in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Bahamian Prime Minister held a press conference and the police put up a reward of $100,000 for information about the killer. For the first time--I stress this to the House--the Bahamian authorities asked for assistance from New Scotland Yard and the FBI.
One of the victims of the second murders was an American citizen. A specialist forensic pathologist was flown out from the United States to assist with the autopsies. Detective Superintendent Brian Morris from New Scotland Yard flew out to assist the Bahamian police with their investigations. In September 1998, less than one month after the bodies were found, Tennel McIntosh, a Bahamian, was arrested and charged with the murder of the two women. He has since been committed for trial at the supreme court. I understand that the case is likely to be heard in June or July of this year.
I assure the House that our high commission to the Bahamas in Nassau has been closely involved with all the cases. Our high commissioner and his deputy have
maintained good working relationships and had good co-operation with the commissioner of police and senior members of his force.
We have been in regular correspondence with the families through our high commission in the Bahamas and the consular division in London. We have been on hand to assist the families with their visits to the islands and helped with the identification and repatriation of the deceased. We have discussed the details of the investigations with the families, keeping them updated, and have provided copies of all police reports that were available to us when requested. More recently, the high commission staff have helped with the visits of the officer from New Scotland Yard. In addition, the high commissioner and his deputy have pressed the local authorities to bring the investigation to a conclusion as rapidly as possible, and, as in the case of Carole Leach, have pressed for an inquest. I give an unconditional guarantee to the hon. Gentleman and to Mrs. Gamson that the pressure from our representatives will continue.
The role of consular officers in cases of violent deaths overseas is to help the next of kin at the time of great distress. They provide advice and sometimes practical help, such as advising on the cost of the practical and necessary but rather tragic details of local burial or cremation and transport of the remains and personal property back to the UK. They can also provide a list of local funeral directors and help transfer money from friends and relatives in the UK to help pay costs. Where there is evidence of suspicious circumstances, they have pressed for investigations by local authorities and for results. We have two UK-based staff. Both they and the locally based staff are on hand to ensure that all consular work is fully covered.
The criminal investigation is a matter for the Royal Bahamian police force. Like most police forces, it has a heavy work load, with only 2,200 officers at its disposal to cover 29 inhabited islands. We have made offers of assistance to the Bahamian police force in the past, including for the investigation of the murder of Carole Leach. In a meeting with the deputy commissioner of police, the high commissioner made it clear that the assistance of the Dependent Territories Regional Criminal Intelligence Service would be made available for the investigation of the murder of Carole Leach should the Bahamian police wish. The deputy commissioner of police did not take up this offer.
The House will appreciate that we cannot participate in a police investigation in another country unless we are specifically invited to do so. We welcomed the decision to allow a member of New Scotland Yard to join forces with the Bahamian CID, in a purely advisory capacity, in the investigation into the murder of Joanne Clarke. I think that Mrs. Gamson already knows, but it is important to put it on record, that we also requested that our officers be allowed to work on the murder of Carole Leach and the unrelated case of Jonathon Porton. The authorities in the Bahamas agreed to that.
Detective Superintendent Brian Morris, the officer from New Scotland Yard, visited the site of Carole Leach's murder. He was also given access to the case files of Carole Leach and Jonathon Porton and discussed both cases with the Royal Bahamian police. He has since been involved in facilitating the Bahamian authorities' request for evidence from the UK and has supplied specialist assistance.
Again, I was grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his tribute to the work of Detective Superintendent Morris. As he recognised, Detective Superintendent Morris has personally tried to keep in touch with Mrs. Gamson to keep her fully informed of not only his role, but the way in which the investigation was being conducted.
Detective Superintendent Morris paid a second visit to the island at the end of March. He and the high commissioner paid a call to the commissioner of police to discuss the case. I understand that, although critical of the coroner in the Carole Leach case, he felt that the investigations were being conducted reasonably well. He took the opportunity of his last meeting to reiterate what was written in the report and to advise on what he considered to be the best way forward. New Scotland Yard remains in contact with the Bahamian police and is ready to respond to any request for further help.
Clearly, the role that we can play is limited. I think that the hon. Gentleman and Mrs. Gamson understand those limitations. I am especially grateful for the moderate way in which she, as a bereaved mother, has handled her dealings with the Foreign Office and its staff. It is clear that we will continue to offer what facilities we can to take the matter forward. Where resources can practically be made available that will be of practical assistance, those will be forthcoming. We will continue to press for assurances not only that there will be continued action, but that there is a desire to reach a satisfactory conclusion, which means the arrest and prosecution of those suspected of the murder.
In my role both as a constituency Member of Parliament and as a Minister, I have had to deal with a number of cases of British families who have suffered such horrendous, tragic loss. I know that part of the necessary process of bereavement is knowledge. Yesterday, in an unrelated case, I met someone whose relation had been murdered. That person made the point that it was important to be able to understand what had happened to the close relative. Such people need to understand as much as possible what took place, to have some certainty about the manner of death and all the events surrounding that, so these are not trivial matters.
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