ODPP returns environmental prosecutions in parish courts to clerks
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The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has withdrawn from prosecuting environmental matters at the parish court level, returning those cases, including part-heard trials, to clerks of courts.
The development emerged Thursday during proceedings in the Rio Cobre pollution case against bauxite company UC Rusal, which trades as Windalco, in the St Catherine Parish Court.
Parish Court Judge Genetta Smikle disclosed that the ODPP had cited administrative challenges in stepping back from those matters at the parish court level.
"We are unable to proceed as the ODPP has expressed that there are administrative challenges, so the changes are current and the parish court clerks are now responsible for the prosecutions," Smikle said, adding that the shift applied to both new and part-heard cases.
"We were under the impression that it was for new cases, but it is for all such matters," the judge said.
Attorney-at-law Stephanie Ewbank, appearing for the Windalco, said the development came as a surprise.
"We had brief information, but it is the first that we are knowing about this change," she told the court.
The ODPP's involvement in environmental prosecutions was announced on January 28, 2025, by then-Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, a move that came in the wake of criticism over the handling of such cases at the parish court level following a controversial case involving Trade Winds Citrus Limited.
The Windalco trial stems from an August 2022 incident in which the National Environment and Planning Agency levelled accusations against the company under the Wildlife Protection Act. It followed a major fish kill and environmental damage allegedly caused by effluent discharged into the Rio Cobre from a storage pond.
The first witness is scheduled to continue testimony on August 18, 2026.
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