Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
A MAN who was allegedly strip-searched when he was about to board a flight to London, and then examined by a doctor at the Kingston Public Hospital to see if he had ingested illegal drugs, has slapped the Government of Jamaica with a lawsuit to recover damages for false imprisonment.
Sheldon Fuller, the plaintiff, is contending in the suit filed in the Supreme Court that after his ordeal on April 13 this year, he was sent on a flight to London the next day but when he arrived in London on April 15 he was sent back to Jamaica because the police had tampered with his passport and his relatives did not come to meet him.
Mr. Fuller, a machine operator who is employed to Content Agricultural Products Ltd., St. Catherine, said in the suit filed on Friday that on April 13 he was checking in at the Air Jamaica counter at the Norman Manley International Airport to board an Air Jamaica flight to London when he was allegedly assaulted by a Sergeant Halliman and other members of the police force.
He said they forcibly dragged him into a room, "draped, boxed, handcuffed and strip-searched" him. He was also taken to the police station at the airport. He was next taken to the Kingston Public Hospital and then to the Narcotics Division on Spanish Town Road, St. Andrew, where he was kept until he was released during the night of April 14 and placed on a flight to London.
Mr. Fuller related that at the Kingston Public Hospital he was handcuffed to a bed where he was assaulted by a doctor and other medical personnel who without his consent x-rayed him and took his blood pressure.
He said, whilst handcuffed, he was fed with medicinal products and forced to defecate in a bed pan. He said he was forced to swirl his waste product in the bed pan, denied permission to properly clean himself and thereafter he was assaulted by a gloved doctor who inserted his hand in his rectum.
In the suit filed by attorney, Ravil Golding of the law firm Lyn-Cook, Golding & Company, Mr. Fuller also contended that whilst in police custody he was not fed, given any refreshment or allowed a bath or change of clothes. He was placed on a flight to London on the night of April 14 in "a dishevelled and rank condition."
He said further that whilst in police custody his passport was allegedly seized by Sergeant Halliman who examined the passport by removing his photograph which was later replaced. Sgt. Halliman, he contends, refused him permission to contact his family who had journeyed with him to the airport.
"The plaintiff avers that when he landed in London in his extremely dishevelled condition with a tampered passport and with no relatives to receive him, he was denied entry and placed on a flight back to Jamaica on April 15, 2002," the statement of claim discloses.
He is seeking damages on the basis that Sgt. Halliman and other servants or agents of the Crown acted maliciously or without reasonable or probable cause in their performance or purported performance of their duties as servants or agents of the Crown. He states further that he suffered anxiety, loss of liberty, disrespect, degradation and oppression.
In addition to special and general damages, he is asking the court to make an award for exemplary damages because the behaviour complained of against the defendants who are agents or department of the Government, amounted to arbitrariness and oppression.
Defendants to the suit are Sgt. Halliman, the Hospital (Kingston Region) Management Board and the Attorney-General.
