The Bermuda Police Service (BPS) welcomed the finding by the Court of Appeal in rejecting the recent application on behalf of former officer Oswin Pereira, who was dismissed without notice in January 2020 for matter of gross misconduct.

Police Commissioner Stephen Corbishley said: “This is the second occasion the BPS have dealt with appeals in relaon to this matter and I welcome the Court of Appeal’s agreement that the decision by the police conduct panel, chaired by Mr Alan Dunch, in January 2020, was correct.

“There has been much publicity given this case in the media, with the published judgment now articulating in detail the circumstances of this matter.

“It is essential the public have trust and con)dence in police o*cers and it is right that the BPS sought to defend the conduct panel’s original decision to dismiss Mr Pereira without notice which has today been upheld by the Court of Appeal.”
 
The officer was fired last year for using excessive force during the arrest of a teenager after he was accused of turning off his body camera and hitting the suspect with a baton after a high-speed chase in May 2017.

He was tried in Magistrates’ Court for unlawfully wounding the teenager. But he was found not guilty in 2018, claiming the baton strike was accidental.

Mr Pereira was subsequently dismissed without notice for gross misconduct in January 2020, after a ruling by the police conduct panel.

The disciplinary tribunal found that his account of the incident “appears to be wholly inconsistent with the body camera footage”.

But the panel’s decision was overturned last August following an appeal to the Public Service Commission.

That decision was quashed following a judicial review in the Supreme Court.