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Court clerk cleared over ‘fraudulent’ document

A court clerk has been cleared of wrongdoing over a document that claimed a convicted sex offender had no convictions recorded against him.Malik Zuill, who was sentenced to five months in prison in July for a sexual assault on an underage girl, used the misleading documents in an attempt to remove articles about his conviction.The Judiciary said in a notice published on Wednesday in the Official Gazette that court worker Donneisha Butterfield — whose signature was on the document — “did not do anything fraudulent”. The notice added: “The document in question was issued in error and additional administrative measures have been put into place to ensure that this does not reoccur.”The Judiciary declined to answer to questions about what sort of investigation was conducted, what caused the error or what measures have been put in place to prevent further errors.Zuill was charged with a sex assault on an underage girl in 2015 and the use of a phone to commit the act.He was due to face charges in Magistrates’ Court early last year, but moved to Britain before a court appearance.He was later found to be working as a cleaner in a hostel in Liverpool and arrested by officers from London’s Metropolitan Police.Zuill’s arrest was featured in an episode of the BBC One television programme Fugitives, which followed the work of a specialist police unit.He was extradited to Bermuda on April 24 and remanded in custody until July 1.He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment, but was released immediately because of time served in custody.Zuill sent The Royal Gazette a court letter in August which claimed he had no criminal convictions recorded in the past three years and requested the articles about him removed, and threatened legal action.Alexandra Wheatley, the Supreme Court Registrar, later confirmed that the letter had been “issued incorrectly”.•On occasion The Royal Gazette may decide to not allow comments on what we consider to be a controversial or contentious story. As we are legally liable for any slanderous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.