The CoI UK police officers, with their target list, have been going around making bogus arrests and charges against innocent citizens. In the end, the taxpayers will foot the bill for millions and millions from this witch-hunt. The UK police officers will not have to pay one dime because they have been immune from prosecution and held accountable, just like the governor. Photo: Facebook/File

Ms Genette Colastin of Pockwood Pond, Tortola, is suing the Government of the Virgin Islands after she was allegedly falsely arrested and charged for human trafficking by United Kingdom police officers affiliated with the recent Commission of Inquiry. Photo: Facebook/File

The Commission of Inquiry in the Virgin Islands was led by a lone Commissioner Sir Gary R. Hickinbottom. The CoI was criticised as a witch hunt and with an objective to harm the Virgin Islands' constitutional and democratic advancements. Photo: Daily Mail/File

Governor Daniel Pruce. The governor, just like the United Kingdom police officers in the Virgin Islands, is immune from prosecution and being held accountable in the Virgin Islands. Photo: GIS/file

In December 2022, according to court records, Ms Colastin went home for vacation to Haiti and came back to the VI on January 24, 2023, with three (3) members of her family, who came on a vacation: an uncle and two cousins. She told the courts that it was always her plan that these family members would travel back with her to the VI for their own vacation.

Ms Colastin noted that prior to her family coming to Tortola, she made sure that everyone had all of their paperwork to arrive in the Territory, including visas and return tickets.

The immigration authorities permitted her family to remain in the VI for the one month they requested. On Thursday, February 2, 2023, at about 11:00 AM/12 noon, while she was by her sister's house, Ms Colastin received a telephone call from someone saying they were a police officer. The officer was asking her about her family, but the call got disconnected.

Unethical policing?

Ms Colastin suspected that the call had dropped, as happens from time to time, but she was immediately scared that something had happened to her family. She immediately went to her sister's place in Johnson's Ghut and let her sister know the police had called her about her family.

However, being a good citizen, Ms Colastin collected all of their passports and went to the Road Town Police Station (RTPS). On arrival, she asked the officer at the front desk about her family's whereabouts and gave their names, but was told that they were not there. She did the same thing at the Immigration Department, but was also told they were not there.

The second time Ms Colastin went to the Immigration Department, she received a call from an officer at RTPS who told her to come there, and so she did; however, according to court records, the officer did not say why Ms Colastin should come to the station.

She got to the RTPS at about 1:00 PM and identified herself to the officer at the front desk, where she was told to wait. While she was waiting in the reception area, two (2) UK male police officers in plain clothes approached and told Ms Colastin to come with them. “I went inside with them as I thought they were going to give me an explanation about my family, but they told me that I was arrested for various human trafficking. They told me their names, and I remember them saying they were part of the Col [Commission of Inquiry]. They told me I had to remain silent, or what I said could be used against me. I was confused because I know I did not do anything wrong.”

False arrest & Lies

She noted that “the officers took my handbag, turned it over and emptied everything onto a table. The officers confiscated my bank cards and even took a pair of earrings that I had in my bag. The officers took everything, my make-up, my phone, everything - even the handbag itself. I was not invited to sign anything stating that they retained any of my possessions”.

Two different officers, including a Caucasian UK female police officer, took her to a room, and she was told that she was going to be interviewed. “This was all very new and strange to me,” she remembered saying.

The two UK police officers lied to Ms Colastin about their identity, which is a violation of the Police Act and internal police procedure. However, to date, they have not been charged and were allowed to leave the Territory. “One of the officers identified herself to me as "Avril" and another officer whose name was given as "Vanessa." It later turned out, however, that who I thought was Avril was in fact Officer Calafat”, she noted.

Ms Colastin, who was humiliated for no apparent reasons under the hands of UK Police officers, told the court in her affidavit that “the interview lasted for about two (2) hours. It was awful. They were asking me how much money my sister and her husband make. I told them they have their own personal business that I do not know. Then they asked me how many people I bring to the Caribbean, and I told them I don't often bring family members."

Ms Colastin was also asked, "How much do I get paid to bring people here.

"I felt distraught”, she stated.

While detained for no reason, Ms Colastin told the courts, “This is when I truly realised that they were seriously accusing me of human trafficking. I told her no, I don't do things like that, and the UK police officer told me that if they find out, they will put me in jail for a very long time. I watched the officer and said nothing for a good time because I was very frustrated. I refused to answer some of the questions, because I felt they were too personal, like if the person with whom I lived is my man, and could not possibly have anything to do with my uncle and cousin. I did not receive a copy of the interview when it was finished.”

She further stated in her Affidavit, after the interview, “I was told that I was being detained. I was placed in a cell. I was later told that a search was conducted, pursuant to a search warrant, of my home in Pockwood Pond, but I was never taken by the police to my home, so I do not know how or if the search warrant was in fact executed”.

Inhumane treatment

Ms Colastin noted that “I was kept in a cell overnight, in a filthy, windowless cell as Officer Vanessa told me that I was put in that cell because I am a criminal." She recorded the condition of the cell. “The shower facilities were dirty and terrible. It was so bad that I could never use it, so I asked an officer if I could have a basin, a mop and bleach so that I could clean it before using it. The cell was hot and full of mosquitoes. I could hardly sleep. It was awful”.

Ms Colastin was taken to court on Monday, February 6, 2023, and she was eventually able to get someone to stand as surety for her and was granted bail by the RVIPF at 5:50 PM that day.

The next morning, Tuesday, February 7, she reported that the police came to her house with her niece, Muriel, to get a key for her sister's shop in Free Bottom, Tortola. The police did not give her any paper or a search warrant. She asked them for the paper, and they said they did not need any search warrant and, when she asked the UK Police Officers why, they told her “that was BVI law”. So she gave them the keys, but they did not take her with them to the shop.

Ms Colastin noted that because she was in jail and could not go to work, she lost 3 days' pay, totalling $112.50. Ms Colastin noted that when “I got out of jail, she read in the online news media about how she had been arrested and that she was involved in human trafficking. This was not only shocking but not true,” she stated.

Character assassination  by UK CoI Police

The police made a press release in which they reported on February 4, 2023, that "Police said as a result of the search, three persons were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, and one female, Genette Colastin, 37, from Pockwood Pond, was subsequently charged on February 4, 2023, with various trafficking offences."

In or around April 2023, Ms Colastin received a call from Officer Celafat, who told her to attend the RTPS and pick up her things. “I thought I was going to get my handbag and everything that the officers had taken from me, but I only got my work permit card and driver's licence”. Almost a year and five months later, on August 9, 2024, she received a call from Officer Avril, telling her to come to the RTPS for a meeting. “I asked my sister for the time off and went to the meeting”.

She recalled that at the meeting, Officer Avril and another lady apologised to her and told Ms Colastin “that the police were no longer proceeding by prosecuting the case against me”. Banco Popular had closed her bank account. “These are accounts I have had since I came to the BVI. While I received no official communication from the bank, I am convinced that it was all because of these false accusations against me that they closed my accounts,” she noted.

Ms Colastin, an innocent lady, suffered at the hands of the UK CoI police officers.  She said, “I had spent the last seventeen months suffering the ridicule and rejection of society in which I was previously held in high esteem. I used to care for young children associated with my church affiliated programme, but as a result of the public humiliation, parents withdrew their children from my care. I suffered a lot of stress and anxiety of having this stigma attached to me for over a year”.

After suffering, case now dropped

She noted that her surety, Lariston Lake, received a letter dated August 30, 2024, stating that police were not proceeding with the charge against Colastin, but it was not until October 10, 2024, that she received an official correspondence stating that the UK made up charges “against me were not going ahead”.

Ms Colastin later learnt that her family, who came to Tortola on a vacation, had in fact been detained by the RVIPF and were later deported via a charter plane. She noted that it was “disheartening to learn that my family had been dropped in the middle of the night into Haiti without money or luggage”.

She, in her court document, stated that she lost the money she expended on plane tickets to have her family share the full amount of time to be with her, as well as the loss of time expected to be spent with her family.

Ms Colastin is now suing the Government of the VI for her suffering, embarrassment, shame, and damages for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and defamation of character. The court matter has already started.

This is how the CoI UK police officers, with their target list, have been going around mistreating innocent residents with many bogus arrests and charges. In the end, the taxpayers will foot the bill for millions and millions from this witch-hunt. The UK police officers will not have to pay one dime because they have been immune from prosecution and being held accountable, just like the governor.