Lawyer warns pre-charge bail misused after client cleared of pump-station shooting

Attorney-at-law Kymberli Whittacker has voiced deep discomfort with how pre-charge bail is being applied, saying the tool lets police set conditions on people still under investigation before any formal charge is filed — and that it risks becoming a heavy burden for those who are not true suspects.

Her objection follows the experience of her client, Sebastian Birch. Police circulated his image among men wanted over the robbery and shooting of a female pump attendant in the Corporate Area. Birch later produced an alibi, and Whittacker says investigators concluded he was not among those who carried out the crime. Even so, he was put on pre-charge bail and must report to the police regularly for the next three months.

“The police concluded that Mr Sebastien Birch was not a participant in this robbery,” she told THE STAR. “He should never have been placed on a pre-charged bail in the first place.”

“Pre-charge bail was intended by Parliament to facilitate genuine investigations, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect an individual of an offence. It was not to impose months of restrictions on someone who is not a suspect and has been vindicated by a solid alibi,” she said.

Whittacker argued the episode shows why the Bail Act provision, which took effect in 2023, must be applied with care so people who are not suspects are not needlessly constrained.

Under the pre-charge bail framework, officers may free someone who has been arrested while inquiries continue, even though no charge has been preferred. Conditions can cover reporting duties, limits on travel, curfews, and bans on contact with named persons. Those conditions sit within statutory time caps.

Whittacker maintained that the measure should aid proper probes, yet protections are essential so people who have done nothing wrong are not left under needless controls.

Birch, 24, who works as a bearer and in construction, said his life shifted after police posted his picture online on July 8 as one of three men sought over the robbery and shooting of a female pump attendant on Deanery Road. He insists he was nowhere near the location and says video evidence backs him up.

He said the harm to his name was already done. “Persons are saying that they want to kill me. I am being threatened. I am very fearful for my life because my picture was posted all over the place,” he said.

Within hours of the attendant being robbed and shot, police issued a collage of three men and urged them to surrender. The next day, police said two men tied to the matter were killed in a police operation in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Birch said the image police used was taken outside a bar elsewhere in the Corporate Area several days before the robbery. He believes staff at the venue captured it after that business itself was robbed. He said he had gone there after being sent to buy food and had won $4,500 on a game box.

“I am not too familiar with gambling and didn’t know I should show the bartender before. It became a bit of issue, and the owner was called and the box was checked and they realised that I had won the money for real and it was given to me. That was the money that I had in my hand in the photo. Thing is, I didn’t even leave home to go to the bar. My uncle had sent me to buy KFC, and the line was long, so I just went across to where the bar was,” he said.

Once he saw his likeness circulating, Birch said he attended the Olympic Gardens Police Station to explain. He claimed that although officers indicated they knew he had no role in the attack, he was later taken into custody and held for eight days at the Duhaney Park Police Station.

He said he was finally freed on pre-charge bail on reasonable suspicion of wounding with intent and aggravated robbery. Among the terms is a requirement to report to the police twice each week. He said the rules have disrupted how he earns a living and left him afraid.