PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard has advised the police to examine the possibility of charging persons with “manslaughter by gross negligence” in the deaths of several workers in 2022.
Four divers lost their lives on February 25, 2022, after they were sucked into a 30-inch underwater pipeline belonging to Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd (Paria), on which they were doing maintenance work.
Those killed were identified as Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, and Yusuf Henry, with Christopher Boodram being the lone survivor of the tragedy.
In a statement, Gaspard said that after considering the report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into the tragedy, which UK-based lawyer Jerome Lynch KC chaired, he has “identified that the only possible non-regulatory criminal offense which could have been committed is manslaughter by gross negligence.”
The DPP said that, unlike in the United Kingdom, “there has been no statutory intervention in Trinidad and Tobago to create an offense known as corporate manslaughter.”
Gaspard said that he met with Police Commissioner Erla Christopher-Harewood on May 8 and wrote to her two days later advising that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) should conduct a criminal investigation “to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge any individual or corporate entity with manslaughter by gross negligence.”
Gaspard said an investigation is required as the Commission of Inquiry report “does not itself constitute evidence, and it is materially deficient in proving all the necessary elements of the offense to be investigated.
In his brief statement, he said, “The Commissioner has advised me that she has appointed an officer to lead the investigation.”
In an immediate response to the DPP’s statement, Paria said it would seek the” appropriate legal advice and will be guided by the advice received concerning any investigations in the future.”
The Commission of Inquiry report also noted that Paria and Land Marine Construction Services (LMCS), the company with whom the workers had been employed, should face charges for offenses under the OSH Act.
The report was presented to President Christine Kangaloo on November 30, 2023, and in January, Energy Minister Stuart Young told the Parliament that the Cabinet had forwarded the report to the DPP.
In a statement on July 29, Paria claimed it wanted to compensate the divers’ families but was being frustrated by their legal representatives and the LMCS.
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