A LEGAL TECHNICALITY is standing in the way of the immediate release of Pastor Jippy Doyle from jail.
Doyle was due to be freed yesterday after spending less than three years behind bars. But lawyers representing the tele-evangelist told the SUNDAY SUN that they had got a telephone call from a senior prison officer on Friday informing them of “a new development”.
The unnamed official confirmed receiving a letter from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions informing prison authorities that Doyle had filed an application for special leave to appeal his conviction before the Caribbean Court of Justice.
“[The senior prison officer] stated further that, as a consequence of his [Doyle’s] application, he was being treated as a prisoner on remand and not a convicted prisoner (who had served out his time) and because of that he (senior prison officer) now had no date for Doyle’s release,” Sir Richard Cheltenham, QC, said.
But Sir Richard, who in association with attorneys Marlon Gordon and Shelly-Ann Seecharan are representing Doyle, said a file a writ of habeas corpus would be filed tomorrow on behalf of their client, challenging the DPP’s decision.
He noted that under the laws of Barbados no prosecutor had the power to determine when a sentence was due to begin or end.
“I hope therefore that the Superintendent of Prisons will have the good sense and the courage to thank the prosecutor for the letter and proceed to ignore it. Anything short of this has serious implications for the liberty of the subject,” he told the SUNDAY?SUN.
But according to the correspondence relayed to Doyle’s lawyers, the acting DPP is charging that only convicted persons could be released and as a result the tele-evangelist should continue on remand.
Sir Richard is however contending that Doyle’s sentence expires at midnight Sunday, but in keeping with normal prison practice should have been set free yesterday since releases are not usually carried out on Sundays.
“Should the prison authorities fail to release him [Doyle] on the expiration of his sentence, we are committed to filing a habeas corpus application before the High Court, the effect of which will have him [Doyle] brought before the court and require the Superintendent of Prisons to show wrongful cause,” Seecharan said.
Sir Richard further maintained that his client’s appeal to the CCJ did not challenge the length of the prison sentence.
“Doyle remains convicted until that challenge is overturned by the CCJ and his appeal cannot interrupt the expiration of his sentence,” he said.
Sir Richard also charged that the decision of the Court of Appeal was at “all times effective and binding until the CCJ says otherwise”.
Doyle, whose trial attracted widespread public attention, was charged with raping a 13-year-old female member of his Dominion Life congregation at Haggatt Hall, St Michael, in 2001.
He was convicted of the crime on July 31, 2008, and in October that same year sentenced to ten years in jail.
Doyle however appealed his conviction and last December a Court of Appeal headed by Acting Chief Justice Sherman Moore, in a 55-page judgement, ruled that the rape conviction could not stand, and substituted an indecent assault conviction, sentencing the tele-evangelist to three years in jail to start from the date of his previous conviction (October 2008).
