After 11 years James Shepherd secures his client’s acquittal after trial by Judge alone in one of the longest ever criminal trials

On 25th September 2023, James’s client was acquitted of all charges by The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of The Turks and Caicos at the conclusion of one of the World’s longest running criminal trials.

James acted for an attorney charged with conspiracy to defraud the government and people of the TCI. The acquittal represented the first verdicts returned in what was originally a trial of 11 defendants, including former government ministers and attorneys charged with corruption, bribery, conspiracy to defraud and money laundering. The original trial started using the new TCI trial by Judge alone procedure in December 2015. The death of the original trial judge in February 2021 before the case concluded led to the prosecution severing the indictment and this acquittal comes at the end of the first of 3 trials of those 11 originally accused. James was first instructed in 2012. The trial process has involved multiple appeals to the Caribbean Court of Appeal and Privy Council on various contested points of law.