Leon-Issa loses battle with cops over phone access
... ordered to comply with order in Garbiel King murder probe by end of July
Published:Friday | April 28, 2023 | 12:29 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Amoi Leon-Issa, the mother of nine-year-old Gabriel King, has lost her battle in the Supreme Court to quash an order from the St James Parish Court that she should grant sleuths probing her son’s January 13, 2022 murder access to her cellular phone.
The judgment, which was issued following in-chambers hearings before Justice Shelly Williams on March 30 and April 26, declared that Leon-Issa must comply with the previously issued order by July 31, 2023.
Gabriel King, who was developmentally challenged, was reportedly abducted from his mother on January 13, 2022 along the Tucker main road in St James, after assailants dragged Leon-Issa from the motor car in which the mother and child were travelling and then sped off with the vehicle, with King still inside.
The vehicle was later found along the Fairfield main road and the child’s body was found in the back seat with the throat slashed.
The police found Leon-Issa’s phone in the vehicle and have kept it in their possession as they probe the crime.
The Supreme Court ruled that Leon-Issa has failed to prove her claim that the order to provide the PIN to access the phone was unreasonable or would constitute a violation of her privacy.
The St James Parish Court had ordered that the PIN be given to investigators by November 24, 2022, but that order was not followed.
“The production order allows for the extraction of the information from the iPhone to be undertaken in the presence of the applicant’s [Leon-Issa] attorney, as well as an approved computer expert of the applicant’s choosing. The law itself places safeguards in place wherein the relevant police officer would be charged and placed before the court if any information extracted from the iPhone is disclosed to the public. The production order granted by the first respondent [Ashley] is not unreasonable under the circumstances,” the ruling stated.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey told The Gleaner on Thursday: “We expect that good sense will prevail and that the attorney makes his client available to fulfil the order of the court.”