Courts clear St. Catherine fisherman, grant Bull Bay carpenter bail, and remand mortgage fraud accused

Several court rulings, a municipal policy debate, a school safety scare, and a major fraud case featured in national news on Thursday, 14 May 2026.

Carinton Ferris was discharged in the St. Catherine Parish Court on Tuesday after he produced a fisherman’s identification card and told the court why he was carrying a knife. Ferris wept as he explained the charge. “Guilty with explanation, your honour,” he said, adding that he had just returned from Pedro Cays with fish for sale in a cooler and needed the blade to scale them. Senior Parish Court Judge Desiree Ala dismissed the matter after speaking with the clerk of courts. Police had arrested Ferris on 30 April after seeing him in an argument with another man along Hellshire Beach in St. Catherine. A search turned up a small pocket knife, and he was charged with possession of an offensive weapon.

In the Gun Court on Tuesday, 48-year-old carpenter Omar Cole of St. Andrew was granted $150,000 bail on charges of possession of a prohibited weapon and unauthorised possession of ammunition. Police allege that during a pre-dawn operation on 3 April in the Bull Bay area, they searched two locations linked to Cole and found an air pistol and 280 pellets in a barrel that also held items including chicken feet. Counsel Javeed Grant argued the room was not a place Cole had ever lived and that he was not on the property when the items were found, while commending his client’s record as suitable for bail. Conditions include a stop order, surrender of travel documents, and reporting requirements. Cole is due back on 14 July.

Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaib told the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation on Tuesday that it remains unclear how the planned One Road Authority will ease chronic funding shortages for local government. Cabinet has approved a policy framework for the executive agency, which will set road standards islandwide and carry out works on national main roads, but municipal corporations have raised concerns about overlap with their responsibility for community roads. Swaib said limited state resources continue to stall repairs on parochial roads in poor condition.

In Manchester, five-year-old Janna Clark escaped serious injury after falling into a manhole at New Forest Primary and Infant School on Monday while waiting for her bus. Her mother, Stacy Sinclair of Gutterskin, said Janna went to the rear of the school where the cover tilted under her weight and she fell in before a teacher pulled her out. Sinclair took the child to a doctor that evening and reported diarrhoea and vomiting afterward, and she criticised the school for not seeking immediate medical care, though administrators have stayed in contact. Principal Sharon Anderson said the infant-department manhole had been covered for more than ten years without a prior incident and that contractors are sealing it with cement to prevent recurrence. “We don’t know how it opened,” Anderson said.

Kadim Reed, the fourth person charged in a multi-million-dollar mortgage fraud targeting several financial institutions, was remanded until 17 September when he appeared in the Supreme Court on Wednesday after the matter moved from the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Court. The Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency said Reed was charged on 29 April under the Proceeds of Crime Act and with conspiracy to defraud. Co-accused Ivana Campbell, 29, an executive assistant, Duane Peter, 44, and a 30-year-old medical doctor were charged earlier. All four are accused of operating as a criminal syndicate between January 2023 and April 2024, using fraudulent and fake documents to bypass bank security checks. Reed’s attorney Vincent Wesley intends to apply for bail; the application is due by 17 July, the Crown’s response by 14 August, and disclosure on or before 30 June 2026.