Acquitted man seeks damages over jail stay

Pedro Deroy Ellis
Pedro Deroy Ellis

(Barbados Nation) – An acquitted former murder accused is asking for almost $900 000 in assorted damages after the Court of Appeal held his right to freedom was infringed at the conclusion of his trial.

While the Crown has accepted that Pedro Deroy Ellis’ 18-day remand at HMP Dodds before he was finally released was a “judicial error”, it believes he is not entitled to that sum of compensation.

Justice Shona Griffith has set October 25 as the tentative date for her decision in the matter.

It was in 2019 that Ellis, of Morris Gap, Westbury Road, St Michael, went on trial for the murder of Antonio Harewood, also of Westbury Road, on May 5, 2013.

After a three-week trial on October 8, 2019, the jury found him not guilty of murder but could not decide on manslaughter.