… stationed at Services Branch
CONTROVERSIAL Senior Police Superintendent Harry ‘Bungles’ Daley, with his legal troubles now behind him, is now back on the job.A source said Daley started working at the Police Services Branch two Mondays ago. However, attempts by the Jamaica Observer yesterday to reach Daley were unsuccessful. When we called the Services Branch the person who answered the phone said he was out of office, and calls to his cellphones were not answered.The embattled policeman, known as a fearless crimefighter, was driven to tears when Court of Appeal President Justice Seymour Panton dismissed a corruption conviction and replaced it with a verdict of acquittal in March this year. The Appellate Court ruled in Daley’s favour after finding that he did not receive a fair trial.Daley was convicted by Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court in December 2009 and was slapped with an 18-month sentence at hard labour. However, his bail was extended after his legal team gave verbal notice of appeal.Daley, who once headed the St Catherine North Police Division (Spanish Town), also worked at Detentions and Court before his legal troubles began.He was convicted based on allegations that he been collecting money on a monthly basis from businessman Tafari Clarke in return for protection of a plaza in Ewarton, St Catherine, which Clarke’s relatives owned.In his defence, Daley contended that he was collecting money owed to him by Clarke’s uncle.He testified during the trial that the police raided his home in his absence and took a number of documents, some of which included the loan agreement for which the payment had been made by Clarke.Lay Magistrate William Morgan confirmed that he had advised Daley and Clarke’s uncle on the loan agreement. He told the court that he never knew Daley before Leonard Miller took him to his house in 2003, where the agreement was signed.Another justice of the peace had also testified about the veracity of the payment to Daley.Police from the Anti-Corruption Branch, as part of their investigations, filmed Daley taking money from Clarke. Clarke was also fitted with a recording device, but nothing to implicate the senior policeman was recorded.It had also been revealed during the trial that Clarke had given false information on an application for asylum in Britain.He had claimed that his life had been threatened in a matter unrelated to the Daley case.During the appeal process, Daley’s lawyers contended that the prosecution had breached the principle of disclosure by withholding documents that could have resulted in an acquittal.After Daley had been found guilty and convicted, Police Commissioner Owen Ellington praised the work of the officers who were involved in preparing the case against him.“The verdict of guilty is a clear demonstration of the will and courage of the JCF to go after corrupt police officers, no matter the rank involved. Corruption is listed as one of my top six strategic priorities, and we will be pursuing corrupt and unprofessional officers with vigour until we rid the organisation of these persons,” a statement from Ellington said then.DALEY… known as a fearless crimefighterView the original article here
Senior Superintendent Harry Daley returns to work
