Shown on TV, accused robber faces new charges

Occasionally we receive comments from civil libertarians complaining that the practice of showing accused criminals on television is a violation of their constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The question is a legitimate one…but there is another side of the story. On Monday we ran footage of a man accused of a major jewellery heist in San Ignacio. Today we were informed by police that a viewer watching in the village of Esperanza recognized the man as one of two armed bandits who robbed her of six thousand dollars in May. The guy in question was picked out of a police line-up and will now face new charges. It also turns out the name he gave to San Ignacio police, Frank Flowers, is not his real one and he has now been identified as thirty year old Glen Arnold of East Canal in Belize City.