Convicted ex-cop gets new date for appeal hearing

Another five months is the minimum time convicted ex-police constable Dave “Apple Boy” Roacher will have to wait to have his appeal heard against his conviction and sentence to 20 years for robbing two women at gunpoint.
The case came up for hearing before the Supreme Court yesterday, but was adjourned to November when the itinerant court is scheduled to sit in Antigua & Barbuda again.
The adjournment was due to a request from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Anthony Armstrong who wanted more time to reply to Roacher’s submissions which were only filed in recent days.
Roacher, who was dismissed as per police rules when he was convicted, has maintained his innocence from the onset.
The evidence was that on January 18, 2012, between 5 am and 5:10 am, Constable Roacher went to a relative’s Whenner Road home and robbed the two women who were there.
One of the victims testified that the robber entered the house and demanded money. She said she told the masked intruder, who had a handgun and a knife, “We are a poor family and we don’t have any money.”
The robber, whose eyes and mouth were visible, went into a bedroom and took a gold chain and a diamond ring from the dressing table.
After he left, the women went to the police to report the matter and indicated they knew who had committed the act.
 
(More in today’s Daily Observer)