Seventy-nine year old Abraham Harrigan was given a verdict of ‘guilty’ and sentenced, on Monday May 4, 2009, after a 17-day trial to life imprisonment for the death of 52-year old Mary Elaine Phillips. The verdict came in 8 to 1 against Mr. Harrigan from a jury consisted of seven men and two women, which took about three hours to deliberate.

The prosecution was undertaken by Mr. Evans Welch and Miss Vernette Richardson from the Attorney General’s Office, while Mr. Harrigan was represented by Mr. Thomas Astaphan and Mr. Colin Meade from Astaphan’s Chambers.

Indictment number 00015 from the 2009 Anguilla Criminal Assizes of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, in the High Court of Justice between the Crown and Abraham Harrigan, is a warrant of commitment in the High Court on Sentence of Imprisonment.

Addressed to all Police Constables, other Peace Officers and the Superintendent of Prison, the indictment stated that Mr. Harrigan “was on the 4th day of May 2009 convicted before the Hon. Madam Justice Margaret Price Findlay sitting at the Valley, Anguilla.”

The document sited the reason for conviction as “murder contrary to section 186 (1) as provided for by section 188 of the Criminal Code, Revised Statutes of Anguilla, Chapter C140.”

According to the indictment, Justice Price Findlay adjudged that Harrigan should spend the rest of his life confined to prison.

Word from the offices of the court said this might very well have been a landmark case, possibly being the longest criminal case on record. Registrar of the High Court Mrs. Patricia Harding Hodge said it was the longest in her 9 years with the court. It was also speculated that, at almost 80, Harrigan is the oldest man convicted of murder in Anguilla.

On February 15, 2007 police responded to a call from Harrigan’s business establishment, Hide Away Grocery, in Little Dix, where they found and recovered the body of Miss Phillips who had sustained a gunshot wound. Phillips was subsequently pronounced dead.

Harrigan and Phillips had one child together.

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News