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1 week ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
A husband and wife jailed last year for people smuggling have asked a court to quash their conviction. The English couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have also lodged an appeal to have their sentences reduced. Nicholas Dixey, who appeared for the man, told the Grand Court on Friday that Caymanian law did not cover the type of offence that the two were convicted of and that the legislation used to charge them was inappropriate, so the conviction should be quashed.
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1 week ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
Cayman’s prison service will evaluate whether a senior officer cleared of smuggling drugs into a prison should return to his job. A spokesman for HM Cayman Islands Prison Service said it acknowledged that Derron Watson had been cleared of misconduct in public office by a Grand Court jury last week.
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2 weeks ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Christopher Johnson on New Year’s Eve last year. Demicio Frederick, 28, of George Town, appeared in Summary Court on Friday by video link and Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn remanded him in custody for an appearance in Grand Court on 30 May. Frederick was arrested on arrival at the Owen Roberts International Airport in George Town on Wednesday evening.
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2 weeks ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
A prison officer cleared of misconduct in public office after he was caught smuggling ganja into Northward Prison said on Thursday he wanted to return to his job. Derron Watson, 51, said, “This is a vindication for me and my family and I just want to get on with my life.”He was speaking outside the Grand Court minutes after the jury accepted he had only taken the drugs into the prison after a mystery gunman held a gun to his head in his garden.
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2 weeks ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
Cayman’s Consolidated Water will start work on a US$204 million contract to build and run a water desalination plant in Hawaii after crucial approval was granted by the US state. Consolidated Water is to start construction of the plant in Honolulu, the capital of the US Pacific island state, in the first quarter of next year, with a completion date by 2028.
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2 weeks ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
Cayman charities need to use their heads as well as their hearts when giving money to developing countries hit by disasters, a top compliance officer told a symposium aimed at informing non-profit leaders. Nadine Hayle, the head of compliance at Dart and director of Special Olympics Cayman Islands, highlighted that some Cayman charities contribute to work in developing countries, such as Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.
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2 weeks ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
Former Deputy Premier Kenneth Bryan on Friday appeared in court as a character witness for a prison officer accused of trying to smuggle drugs into Northward prison. Bryan, the People’s Progressive Movement MP for George Town Central and a top figure in the last government, told the Grand Court that defendant Derron Watson was a “bigger brother” figure to him when he was teenager. The MP told a jury, “We have similar backgrounds. … Our parents are from the Sister Islands, Cayman Brac.
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3 weeks ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
In a surprise visit to a symposium on the regulation of the charity sector on Wednesday, new Premier André Ebanks stressed the importance of non-profit organisations in maintaining Cayman’s economy. Ebanks, who was sworn in as premier just over a week ago, turned up at the event, organised by the R3 Foundation, and gave an off-the-cuff speech. He said the NPO sector was “hugely important in Cayman” and performed a valuable service.
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3 weeks ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
Cayman could become the Caribbean’s hi-tech hub, the organisers of an event designed to promote computing have said. Bayo Sodimu, a volunteer at the ‘Hackathon’ event held on 10 May at Cayman Enterprise City’s Signal House, said the event was designed to attract people new to computer skills and those who had some experience and wanted to learn more, as well as benefit the community.
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3 weeks ago | 
caymancompass.com | Raymond Hainey
Charity donations in Cayman have leapt by a massive $72 million in just five years, attendees of a symposium designed to protect non-profits from harm from money laundering and terrorist-related offences heard on Wednesday at Hotel Indigo in Grand Cayman. The attendees of the symposium, which was organised by the R3 Foundation, heard that 485 registered non-profit organisations raised $39 million in 2019 and spent $36 million of it on good causes.
