SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

A na­tion­al scan­dal.

That’s how Se­nior Coun­sel Is­rael Khan de­scribed the find­ings of a Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) au­dit in­to the con­duct of po­lice of­fi­cers tasked with in­ves­ti­gat­ing the death of Akiel Cham­bers.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion, which be­gan in 2018, in­volved a mon­i­tor­ing and au­dit­ing ex­er­cise.

Fol­low­ing a 20-month probe, the PCA found that ev­i­dence col­lect­ed dur­ing the po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Akiel’s mur­der is “no longer avail­able” and of­fi­cers in­volved in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion “can­not now be held to ac­count” as they are ei­ther de­ceased or have re­tired from the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice and hence “no dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion, if war­rant­ed, may be tak­en at this junc­ture.”

PCA di­rec­tor David West felt that se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers should not have left the in­ves­ti­ga­tions in the hands of in­ex­pe­ri­enced ju­nior of­fi­cers.

“It’s an in­dict­ment against the po­lice. For a case like this, they should have had their top de­tec­tives do­ing their in­ves­ti­ga­tions and maybe call in for­eign ex­perts to work be­hind the scene,” Khan said.

Khan said what hap­pened to Cham­bers was noth­ing short of a “na­tion­al scan­dal” and it leaves one to won­der if it was a “de­lib­er­ate at­tempt to al­low ju­nior po­lice of­fi­cers to in­ves­ti­gate the mat­ter. Why? In­di­rect­ly it could be a cov­er-up.”

Cham­bers, 11, went miss­ing at the home of busi­ness­man Charles James in Mar­aval on May 23, 1998, dur­ing a pool par­ty.

The fol­low­ing day his body was fished out of the pool.

Khan feels Cham­bers was prob­a­bly mo­lest­ed on the prop­er­ty where he died.

He said his per­son­al view was that Cham­bers was not the child of some­one of high sta­tus and was ir­rel­e­vant.

Khan al­so agreed with West, stat­ing the po­lice should have drilled key peo­ple who were at the par­ty and not play catch up in the 2004 Sher­man Mc­Ni­chols’ in­quest.

The au­top­sy found that Cham­bers had been sub­ject­ed over a long pe­ri­od to re­peat­ed sex­u­al in­ter­course through the anus.

To­day marks 24 years since Cham­bers’ mur­der, which re­mains un­solved.

Khan said the DNA would have been most cru­cial in solv­ing the case.

“The po­lice got the DNA but they did not match it up with any­one.”

Al­though the coun­try was not in a po­si­tion to do DNA test­ing back then, Khan said swabs tak­en from Cham­bers’ body could have been sent abroad for test­ing.

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