Gaspard says no government official approached him about promotion to judge; Max sent emails to IC

File: Roger Gaspard

Roger Gaspard confirmed to local media Wednesday that no Government official ever approached him to be a judge. That was one of the issues raised by Opposition Leader Keith Rowley in his controversial emails presented in Parliament.

Rowley read an email that he said contained a plan to promote the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to the judge. 

The purported email from the PM's email address allegedly stated: "Right now our best bet will be giving Gaspard a position on the bench and bring in a replacement. We could also feed our media people that Gaspard was part of the consultation at the Hall of Justice this year and he did not have a problem at the meeting. Let’s try the judge position first.”

Gaspard knocked that down and said, "Nobody has ever approached me," and added that appointments to the bench is reserved for the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC).

"The JLSC acting properly, only make you an offer to sit on the bench if you would have indicated any interest by means of an application. I have never applied," he said.

Gaspard also said he knew nothing about allegations made about tapping his phone. Gaspard stated, "I have no pronouncement to make on this. Bearing in mind I will say more in a press release by the end of the week.”

The DPP said so far no law enforcement authorities have contacted about anything mentioned by Rowley.

In a related development former President Max Richards confirmed to local media that he received the documents from Rowley. "I passed them on to the Integrity Commission, as those e-mails, on the face of it, needed authentication, so the most appropriate body to handle that independently would have been the Integrity Commission,” Richards told the Guardian.

"I want to make it abundantly clear that this was done in absolute confidence and secrecy.” The Integrity Commission communications officer Mervyn Crichlow told the Guardian said the commission would issue a statement on the status of the e-mails.