Judiciary honours memory of deceased magistrate
Richard Swift’s body was found on Glover’s Reef on November tenth. He is the only one of seven friends who went out fishing on November fourth to be accounted for. Today he was remembered by those he worked with.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
This morning the family of Richard Swift gathered alongside members of the legal community in the courtroom of Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh for a special sitting of the nation’s courts. The event was held to pay tribute to the deceased magistrate.
A moment of silence preceded the speeches from the C.J., Justice Herbert Lord, Chief Magistrate Margaret McKenzie, and member of the Bar Richard Stuart.
Abdulai Conteh, Chief Justice of Belize
“Richard Swift breathe the law, lived the law, and his burning ambition while he lived was to be a member of the profession and this he was able eventually to achieve.”
Swift entered the legal field in 2000 as a Revenue Magistrate, working under then Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord.
Herbert Lord, Supreme Court Justice
“His lifelong dream was to become – as he put it, in his words – a qualified attorney at law and he never gave up that fight. So he stayed until the magistracy until 2002. In that year he was given a scholarship to pursue his dream and studies at the University of Guyana to pursue the L.L.B. degree.”
From Guyana, Swift would continue his education at the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica. He returned home in May with his legal certificate and became a sitting Magistrate.
Abdulai Conteh
“We will miss Richard, his flair as an attorney or a Magistrate, eventually what lies beyond that was yet to blossom. He died while his sun was still up. It’s a personal loss for us on the judiciary. It is the intent of the judiciary to have all magistrate’s fully qualified and Richard was an exemplar of that.”
Herbert Lord
“He said he ran the race, that is what he told me once, and he succeeded, he got the prize. Unfortunately, we must now mourn him as that prize was snatched from him by the maker who says come. And when he says come, we bow humbly and move on.”
Richard Swift is survived by his wife and six children.
Abdulai Conteh
“As we mourn with the Swift family, our hearts and prayers also go out to Richard’s friends who were with him on that day when they set out to sea for what was to be their final journey out at sea and indeed in this mortal life.”
But while Swift’s family can now realise some closure, the same cannot be said for the relatives of his six friends. According to spokesperson for the families, Audrey Matura Shepherd, the search for the men continues.
Audrey Matura Shepherd, Family Spokesperson
“For them the search will never be over. The search may not be at the large scale as it was before and that’s for very particular reasons. The family has come to realise that maybe what they are dealing with is beyond them because they feel that there are certain things that only the authorities could do and that they may be endangering themselves more than anything if they push forward in the full force that they were going because at the end of the day, after the post-mortem of Richard Swift came out, they realised after great analysis that this could not be just a mere accident. So they’ve left the real investigation and real search to the police. However, they still need the information from the public.”
But it seems that most of the information coming from the public has taken the form of rumours and conspiracy theories
Audrey Matura Shepherd
“At first it was devastating for them, but they learnt one thing, that they would not accept any information unless it comes from someone in authority, be it the police, the coast guard, B.D.F., or if it comes through me that I have gotten it from one of these official persons. Because we’ve heard every possible rumour you could think about and some of them we have explored, like that one that said they were found in Miami. Immediately that night we called the coast guard, spoke to the coast guard, emailed them the photographs and we were told that no bodies were ever found in Miami so I think it’s wickedness. Belizeans have a way of making up a story or embellishing on a story and it’s really not fair to these people, they are still grieving. While they remain hopeful, they still have a lot of pain that they are coping with.”
The missing men are Ismael Quiroz, who is survived by his a wife, son and daughter. Another of his sons, Abner, was also with him on the boat. Hoping for Abner’s return are his wife and daughter. Egbert Nicholson’s immediate family includes his wife, three daughters, and three sons. Gustavo Briceño has seven children and a common-law wife. Elon Reyes is survived by his parents, two brothers and a sister. Derrick Escobar leaves behind his common-law wife, four daughters, and two sons.
Audrey Matura Shepherd
“A lot of them are optimistic that they will be found alive or that they are still alive and that they can be found, but the proper information is required. But worst case scenario they are saying, even if we find them dead, please let us at least find the bodies so that we get the closure we need.”
Kendra Griffith Reporting for News Five.
Attorney General Francis Fonseca was unable to attend to ceremony this morning due to a prior commitment as Minister of Education at the C.X.C. Awards Ceremony. He sent a statement expressing his condolences, however, which was read by the Chief Justice.
