Gov't accepts liability in case of ex-football coach acquitted on assault charge

The government has accepted liability in the claim filed by a man who was acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2017 after spending two years in prison waiting for the notes of evidence at his trial so that his appeal could be heard.

Attorney-at-law Bert Samuels who, is representing Keith Nichol, today said the case is to be set for assessment of damages in the Supreme Court.

After Nichol, a former football coach was freed, he filed a suit seeking damages for false imprisonment.

Nichol also sought aggravated and exemplary as well as constitutional damages. 

The Attorney-General did not file a defence to the suit and Samuels said a default judgment was entered in the matter this month.

Headlines Delivered to Your Inbox

Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters.

Nichol was convicted in the Home Circuit Court of indecent assault and sentenced in March 2015 to three years' imprisonment.

He could have been released in March 2017 with his time in prison reduced by one-third for good behaviour.

But Nichol refused to abandon his appeal so he could leave prison because he said he was determined to clear his name.

He said the complainant had told a vicious lie on him and he just wanted to prove his innocence.

The Court of Appeal in quashing Nichol's conviction in June 2017, bemoaned the fact that the transcript took such a long time to be ready.

Nichol in his affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in 2020 said that the police and the prosecutor being agents of the State, failed to investigate the medical report of a consultant psychiatrist that the complainant had serious mental issues including bipolar disorder, which could cause symptoms of sexual delusions.

- Barbara Gayle