On August 11 five narcotics officers accused of beating a convicted drugs importer were acquitted because Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said the evidence was "weak, self contradictory and out of reason and common sense".

Jamiko Tucker, 27, Kirly Mitchell, 31, Andrew Woolridge, 32, Antoine Fox, 37, and David Bhagwan, 30, all of whom are detectives in the the Bermuda Police Service were cheered on by friends and family when the verdict was delivered.

The allegations stemmed from the officers' investigation into former Dunkley's Dairy employee Michael Madeiros' role in importing over $2 million worth of cannabis

Madeiros alleged the five men had beaten him while trying to get a confession on October 24, 2003.

He claimed to have been kicked, punched, hit with a telephone book, held by his neck and dropped and had pliers put to his knuckles in a bid to force him to talk.

Summing up the case, Mr. Warner said there was evidence Madeiros had no injuries before his arrest and the injuries he had when leaving custody could be classified as actual bodily harm.

Mr. Warner said Madeiros did not help his case because his evidence was continually contradictory. At one point he said Det. Fox hit him with a telephone book but then decided it was David Bhagwan.

Madeiros had made the same switch on the claim that someone had choked him.

"These are serious inconsistencies," said Mr. Warner. "He was making these stories up as he went along."

Mr. Warner also cast aside Madeiros' statement that he was intimidated when a doctor asked him how he was injured. He told the doctor he had fallen instead of telling him of the alleged abuse. Mr. Warner said: "There was little opportunity to intimidate him."

After Mr. Warner had delivered his verdict both defence lawyers took the unusual step of applying for costs against the prosecution with Allan Doughty referring to a 1930 act allowing such a claim on the grounds a case was unfounded, frivolous or done under improper motive.