Former Cayman Island Premier McKeeva Bush found not guilty of rape

Former Cayman Islands Premier McKeeva Bush has been found not guilty on charges of rape and indecent assault in relation to allegations dating back 20 years.

The jury returned to deliver a unanimous verdict on both counts Monday after a seven-day trial. It took the jury of four women and three men fewer than two hours to deliver the verdict.

Bush took the stand last week to defend himself saying, “I have never lied to this country.”

The alleged incident took place over two decades ago between the years 1999 and 2001. The female complainant alleged that Bush had been drunk and she had to drive him home. On the way, he allegedly told her to pull off the road where he allegedly sexually assaulted her. Bush denied the allegation and maintained that no such thing ever happened.

He was arrested and charged in 2022 for the offence.

- Advertisement -

After the jurors delivered their verdict, the former speaker of the house stood up and told Justice Roy James that he wished to say something. He made a brief statement indicating he will demand a commission of inquiry into the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and its connections with the Governor’s Office, the commissioner of police, police officers and some senior civil servants.

When asked if he intended to run for re-election, Bush, who has been an elected representative for West Bay for 40 years, did not rule it out. He said some family members did not want him to run again, but “others are with me and there’s a tremendous amount of public support”.

“I just have to wait and see,” he added.

He said the trial had had a major effect on him and his family. “I’m not a man to cry easily,” he told reporters, “but I cry for my family, my wife. Fifty years next year we’ll be married, and I’ve had all sorts of things said, that I’ve been accused of.”

Bush was represented by Kings Counsel Jerome Lynch, Dennis Brady and well-known Jamaican attorney-at-law Everton Dewar.