Officer stripped to his shorts and jumped into sea in pursuit of suspect
By Elizabeth Roberts
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Neville Woods, accused of burglary, hides his face as he leaves court earlier this week.
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Photo by Mark Tatem
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A Policeman has described how he jumped into the sea after an alleged burglar who had dived overboard in a bid to escape.
Detective Constable Peter Stableford later borrowed a diving mask from a fisherman and retrieved some of the jewellery Neville Woods is accused of stealing, the Supreme Court heard.
Woods, 41, is accused of committing two house burglaries on the afternoon of May 20. Jewellery, money and a pair of men's shoes were stolen in the first, on Tranquillity Lane, and jewellery was stolen in the second, on Chapel of Ease Road.
Approximately two hours later, the defendant who was living on Tommy Fox Road at the time was spotted by Det. Con. Stableford and a colleague near St David's Cricket Club. He had a knapsack on his shoulder and a pitbull puppy on a leash.
Det. Con. Stableford told the jury he greeted Woods with a handshake and told him of several burglaries that day. However, he said, Woods "became furtive and nervous the minute I greeted him...it was his whole demeanour, his body language. He immediately started to move and shuffle away from me, even though I greeted him cordially."
He denied a suggestion from defence lawyer Shade Subair that his tone had been "accusatory as opposed to an inquisitive tone". He went on to describe how he told Woods he was going to search him under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.
At this point, as he continued to back away, Woods asked: "For what? I haven't done anything," then abandoned the puppy and ran off dropping his cell phone as he did so.
The Police officers pursued the suspect to a dock, where, according to Det. Con. Stableford: "Mr. Woods came down the grass bank, came on to the concrete pier and dived headfirst into the water. At that point, he just began swimming away from the dock towards the sound."
Woods swam around to another dock, where he hung by a tyre and appeared to rummage through his knapsack before depositing it on a boat. Then he swam to another boat where he concealed himself from view. Det. Con. Stableford jumped into the water and swam out to the boat, and instructed Woods to head back to land.
The officer, who's a member of the Police dive team, borrowed a diving mask from a nearby fisherman and began to search the sea bed where Woods had been. He explained that the water was seven to eight feet deep, and after a few minutes of searching he found a necklace, and bracelet and chain, which he brought to the surface. He also found a jewellery box in the tyre where Woods had been.
He later came back and showed other members of the dive team where to look, and they recovered additional jewellery items. In answer to questions from defence lawyer Ms Subair, Det. Con. Stableford, a British officer, explained he'd stripped down to his Bermuda shorts before diving into the water after Woods.
"This was a case that caused you to get into the water in May. You don't speak with a Bermudian accent, but that's cold season?" inquired Ms Subair. To which the officer replied: "It was not a cold day and the water was nice and warm."
Woods, who is currently in custody, denies two burglary charges and the case continues.
