The Royal Gazette (15 July 2022) reports that the Court of Appeal has ruled “The Supreme Court was wrong to throw out a criminal case against a former police officer accused of posting a “grossly offensive” cartoon days before a Black Lives Matter march.

Barbi Bishop was alleged to have shared a cartoon of a person being hit by a vehicle which read: “All Lives Splatter. Nobody cares about your protest. Keep your a** out of the road”.

While Chief Justice Narinder Hargun threw out the criminal case against Ms Bishop over constitutional concerns last year, the Court of Appeal said he wrongly found that police disciplinary proceedings had made the criminal proceedings unnecessary.

Court of Appeal Judge Sir Maurice Kay said,  “At the time of the hearing in the Supreme Court, no one could predict the future outcome of the disciplinary proceedings or whether the respondent would choose to remain a member of the Bermuda Police Service long enough for any likely sanction to take effect.

“It is common for employees to ‘jump before they are pushed’ in such circumstances.

“In a sense, that is what has eventuated in this case. Having prevailed in the Supreme Court, the respondent, an American citizen, relocated to Florida and took no part in the hearing of this appeal.”

Sir Maurice added that it was important to consider the full context of the case and, while the post was removed, its content and timing were “both offensive and inflammatory”.

CLICK HERE for the full report in the Royal Gazette