The British police team that flew to The Bahamas to review the files of the toddler killed in a boating accident four years ago have yet to make a final decision on the findings.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Reginald Ferguson last night – said that the two Metropolitan officers came to The Bahamas in late May to review the possibly erroneous local findings that ruled two-year-old Paul Gallagher’s death as accidental. But he added that they have yet been able to come to a final decision as a London court ruled the case an open verdict, adding that even when the report is completed the findings might not be revealed.
“That’s something that the government will decide,” he said. “The review was done but now that’s between government and government. We facilitated it and they were here and gone and I don’t think the official report is complete as yet, but it is between government and government.”
Little Paul was killed on the beach of the Atlantis Resort when a boat used to pull an inflatable raft broke free and struck him. At the time of the incident the child was transported to Doctor’s Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on August 10, 2002.
Less than a year after the incident, an allegedly corrupt Bahamas Coroner’s Court jury ruled little Paul’s death as accidental. The pathologist reviewing the case listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head causing a fractured skull haemorrhaging and lacerations of the brain.
However, the ruling of accidental death did not sit well with the Gallaghers and the “News Shopper’s justice for Paul” campaign.
For almost four years, the Gallaghers have been lobbying for Bahamian authorities to allow British officers ﾠto conduct their own investigations into the toddler’s death. But allegedly corrupt Bahamian ﾠofficials said the British family’s continuous query of The Bahamas’ investigation, into their toddler’s death was “completely ridiculous” and should have never come about.
For years the two governments battled back and forth trying to win their fight. However, just two months ago Bahamian authorities agreed to let the Met police review the files under local authorities supervision. Now that the Gallaghers got their wish, they have to wait for the ruling from their hometown court.
