Tribute To Retiring DPP

From Crown Prosecution Service.

AS the learned Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Victoria Charles-Clarke embarks on her retirement, the Crown Prosecution Service says congratulations to a phenomenal woman!

Mrs. Victoria Charles-Clarke joined the office of Director of Public Prosecutions in January 2000 in the position of Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions. She is an attorney-at-law of 26 years experience having been called to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Saint Lucia in September 1990. She has held various positions in the justice system of Saint Lucia as Deputy Registrar of the High Court and additional Magistrate (1991 -1992); Magistrate First and Second Districts (1992-1997); Registrar of the High Court, Civil Status, Companies, Deeds and Mortgages( 1997-1998), (Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions and Director of Public Prosecutions of Saint Lucia (2000 -2002). She held the position of Director of Public Prosecutions from 2002 until her retirement on 9thMarch 2016.

During her tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Victoria Charles Clarke prosecuted many complex high profile cases of homicide involving several defendants, cases of sexual offences, robbery, drugs, firearms,stealing, fraud and other financial crimes. She has represented the Crown in litigation of cases at the Magistrate’s Court, High Court and Court of Appeal obtaining convictions in most of the cases prosecuted and successfully defending criminal appeals at the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.

As Director of Public Prosecutions she managed and supervised the Crown Prosecution Department with a staff of 35, including six lawyers and 15 police prosecutors. Despite the limited resources she worked tirelessly to improve the quality of prosecution services in the department. During her tenure she preferred over 3,000 indictments in the High Court, managed the litigation in the department at all levels, and gave advice to the police in the conduct of their investigations.

In 2004 she prepared new initiatives for the establishment of the Crown Prosecution Service in Saint Lucia which sought to strengthen, enhance and consolidate the prosecution services in Saint Lucia by the integration of the police prosecution unit within the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions, create a branch in the Second District and increase the number of lawyers in the department to ten. This was approved by Cabinet in 2004. She has played an instrumental role in the Criminal Justice Reform process in Saint Lucia which resulted in continuous Criminal High Court sittings; implementation of Criminal Procedure Rules in 2009 which saw the abolition of the system of Preliminary Inquiries and introduction of Sufficiency Hearings and Case Management for all indictable cases and summary cases.

In preparing her office for the numerous challenges brought about by the Criminal Procedure Rules which came into force in January 2009 she developed protocols for Case File Management in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Rules and held several training workshops in collaboration with the Judicial Education Institute of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. She also developed protocols for the prosecution of sexual offences, drug cases and financial crimes especially regarding asset forfeiture and confiscation in collaboration with other agencies such as CCARP. She also undertook other initiatives and commissioned the publication of a Code for Prosecutors and a Witness Charter. She constantly lobbied for the implementation of a witness care programme and played a key role in the launching of the ‘No Witness No Justice’ programme in collaboration with the US Embassy and the British High Commissioner’s Office.

Over the years Victoria Charles-Clarke demonstrated a passion for education and training and together with her staff and other agencies embarked upon organizing several training workshops for police prosecutors and investigators. These include a Basic Prosecutor’s Course in August 2015; Training for regional police prosecutors on manual for prosecution of sexual offences, Barbados Regional Police Training School, August 2012; Training for investigators and prosecutors on the Criminal Procedure Rules in collaboration with Judicial Education Institute; Strategic Advocacy Training for Crown Prosecutors; Training workshop on Gathering and presenting forensic evidence for Crime Scene Investigators, Senior Police Officers and Prosecutors. She also provided training for the Customs Department and the St. Lucia Fire Service on the gathering and presentation of evidence and their role in the Criminal Justice System.She facilitated workshops for Directors of Public Prosecutions in the region with the assistance and sponsorship of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the British High Commissioner’s Offices in September 2011 on the Prosecution of Serious Organized Crimes, and June 2015 on Economic Crime and Recovery of Proceeds of Crime.

Charles-Clarke was a passionate and skilful prosecutor who discharged her duties with a high degree of integrity, impartiality and professionalism. She always strived to uphold the dignity of the legal profession and the Constitution and laws of St. Lucia.

The Crown Prosecution Service recognizes the significant contribution which the learned Director of Public Prosecutions has made to the Criminal Justice System. Mrs. Victoria Charles-Clarke, albeit a very firm and strong leader in the department, she was always willing to provide guidance to her staff. In that regard she was both a mentor and role model to the Crown Counsels and the Police Prosecutors. Her presence will be dearly missed in the department.

The Crown Prosecution Service wishes her success in her future endeavours and congratulates her on a job well done!