WIKILEAKS - Mark Shields held Adams in disdain

Former Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields had reportedly threatened to resign if then Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams was acquitted and returned to front-line duty after his trial for the alleged unlawful killing of four people in Kraal, Clarendon, in May 2003.

A diplomatic cable obtained by The Gleaner through the non-profit media entity WikiLeaks reported that Shields not only expressed his disdain for Adams during a December 2005 meeting, but made very damming allegations against Adams to a senior US Embassy official.

According to the cable, Shields made it clear that he was giving his personal and professional opinion as he discussed the Kraal case.

"He (Shields) lamented that if Adams is found not guilty and put back on front-line duties, he would resign the force immediately and return to the UK," read a section of the cable.

But Adams, in a response last Friday, told The Sunday Gleaner that he was not surprised by the revelations in the December 2005 cable, which confirmed for him that Shields "has no respect for Jamaican law.

"If a jury found that I was not guilty, he is in contempt to have made a statement like that (to a US Embassy official)," Adams declared.

The retired cop, whose colourful and controversial career spanned more than 40 years, said he did not have a close relationship with Shields, the first British cop employed by the Jamaica Constabulary Force as part of a major overhaul

According to Adams, the relationship between Shields and him was always bad, but it deteriorated based on the conduct of the British cop who joined the force in March 2005 as the deputy commissioner in charge of crime.

Four days after the reported meeting between Shields and a US Embassy official, Adams and two other members of the now disbanded Crime Management Unit (CMU) were acquitted of the murder of the four persons in Kraal.

No prima facie case

Initially, six policemen were charged with the controversial killing of Bashington 'Chen-Chen' Douglas and three others in a house in Kraal, but three of the cops were freed after then Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe ruled that the State had failed to make a prima facie case against them

Adams and his fellow cops were freed by a jury days later, but not before Shields had reportedly told the US Embassy officials that he expected all of those charged to "beat the rap".

"It would be a major turning point for Jamaica," the cable quoted Shields as he considered the possibility that Adams and his team would be found guilty.

Shields, a 28-year veteran of the London Metropolitan Police, led the investigation into the Kraal shootings, and he, like many others, seemed convinced that the four persons had been murdered by the police.

He argued that even with an acquittal, Adams could still be dismissed from the police force "for the good of the service.

"Shields noted that with the overwhelming amount of evidence against him (Adams), it would be in the best interest of Jamaica if he were let out of the force," read the cable.

But the now retired Adams has questioned the claims about the overwhelming evidence against his team. According to Adams, the Kraal case was not properly investigated.

"Because if he (Shields) had any skill at all, or any professionalism, he would not have come to the conclusion that I was guilty," Adams asserted.

Efforts to contact Shields were unsuccessful.

The police had reported that members of the Adams-led CMU had gone to Kraal in search of Douglas, who was wanted in connection with a number of crimes.

According to the police, they were fired on by persons in the house and returned the fire, killing Douglas and three others, including two women.