Coard interview sparks outrage‏

Coard interview sparks outrage

Tim Slinger Barbados Nation

JASPER WATSON, the lead investigator into the murder of Grenada's Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and his Cabinet, has described Bernard Coard as a cold-blooded killer who wanted power at any costs.

Referring to those convicted for the October 19, 1983 killings, the last batch of whom were released from prison two weeks ago, the retired police superintendent said they should have been hanged.

"They are natural cold-blooded murderers-that's what they are. They should have met their end by the hangman's noose," Watson stated.

In an interview conducted with the Trinidad Express and released yesterday, Coard claimed he along with his wife, Phyllis, then army boss Hudson Austin and others was "sporadically beaten to force us to sign certain statements" referring to the several confessions produced by police officers during the murder trial.

But Watson, who retired from the Royal Barbados Police Force more than ten years ago, has refuted the allegations and said that Coard even made death threats to him during the murder investigations.

"I personally interviewed Coard. One day he said to me that if it took him 50 years or 100 years, he would ensure that he got after me because he wanted me killed.

"But he is that kind of vicious character. He (Coard) felt that he was above the law and his wife had the same kind of attitude," he added.

Watson also spoke about his first meeting with Coard and said the former deputy leader opposed being interviewed.

"He (Coard) told me that I was one of Tom Adams" (then Barbados's prime minister) stooges and I had no calling in Grenada."

Watson said he took the responsibility of interviewing all the senior members of the Central Committee who gave the execution orders, including Coard and Austin.

He denied torturing any of the convicted killers and also spoke of the discovery of a plot to poison the Barbadian police investigators.

"Some of the female relatives and immediate friends of some of those who were in prison had a party at True Blue and they invited some of the investigators but I got a tip-off they were planning to poison every one of them," he said.

Arising from the October 19 killings at Fort Rupert, Watson also spoke about an incident involving a three-year old girl which will remain with him until eternity.

"There was this little girl who was thrown onto the truck and placed among the dead bodies of Bishop and the others. She was shouting "mummy, mummy" and one of the soldiers knocked her down with a gun butt and carry her also and buried her with the dead at Camp Feddon.

Watson also touched on Coard's torture allegations levelled against the deceased Barbadian prison officer Lionel Maloney, who was the acting Superintendent of Prisons in the early years of the convicted killers' incarceration.

"They wanted to do as they wished but Maloney was a hardline prison officer.

I am even suspicious about the way he (Maloney) died since I warned him about taking precaution with the things he do like drinking and eating," he added.

Watson, who retired from the force in 1995 at the rank of superintendent, said he was disappointed that Coard and others convicted to hang for the killings were allowed to re-enter society.