completed next week.

The Royal Gazette has learned that an internal hearing into an alleged incident involving three officers and a teenage female inmate last January will be held next week.

And the officers, who have been suspended on full pay since March, will learn of their fate soon after.

The move comes after Commissioner of Prisons Edward Dyer spent six weeks reviewing a file on the now closed criminal investigation into the allegations.

The hearing or trial is part of the standard procedure in such cases and will determine what, if any, disciplinary action will be taken against the men.

The three officers have been off work for six months, whilst a criminal investigation was made into the claims by a 19-year-old British inmate, that she was raped by officers at the Co-ed Facility at Ferry Reach in St.

George's.

Opposition MPs and the Prison Officers Association have urged for the inquiry to be wrapped up as quickly as possible, and for the men to return to work.

And shortly after receiving the file in July, Mr. Dyer commented that it was important to clear the matter up, adding that he was "concerned at the length of time they had been off work''.

Although the Attorney General's Chambers have officially closed the case because of a lack of evidence to support a trial, they did not rule out re-opening it if new material came to light.

Since the claims were made the inmate was transferred to Holloway Prison in London, UK, to complete her sentence after successful lobbying by lawyer Mark Pettingill and the teenager's family.

The prisoner was into the second year of a six-year term for smuggling $66,000 of heroin into Bermuda.

Ed Dyer