Lawyer demands answers after ‘Bounty’ seen crawling into court

Nigel Bounty Pinder (white pants) under heavy police escort on his first appearance in the Oistins Magistrates’ Court in September 2025. (File Photo) Questions are being raised about the treatment of prisoners in custody after high-profile accused Nigel Bounty Pinder was seen crawling into the Oistins Magistrates’ Court last week, despite reportedly requiring a wheelchair and medical care. Pinder, who is facing multiple murder and conspiracy to murder charges, was recorded crawling out of the prison van and dragging himself into the court. Now Senior Counsel Angella Mitchell-Gittens has sent letters demanded answers from the Superintendent of Prisons and the Minister of Home Affairs about the incident. Mitchell-Gittens said Pinder had been involved in an accident earlier this month while on his way to court from prison. She visited him the day before his court date and saw him in a wheelchair and was informed that a doctor had recommended he be confined to it. Though unaware of the diagnosis, she said that he was having physiotherapy and other treatments. She told Barbados TODAY: “I honestly did not think he was going to come to court because it may be difficult to transport somebody confined in a wheelchair, but eventually he turned up. I heard this commotion outside but I paid no attention to it because things happen outside the court from time to time and I realised that he was sitting on his bottom on the ground in the actual dock and he indicated that they brought him down without a wheelchair and refused to help him into the court.” Adamant that prisoners have rights, the veteran defence attorney said she advised him not to crawl back out of court. You Might Be Interested In “I spoke in the court and said that it wasn’t good enough and that people cannot be treated like that regardless of the situation. And eventually a prison ambulance with two medics came for him.” Declaring that she has never seen such a situation in her years of practice, Mitchell-Gittens added: “I have represented several persons who were permanently incapacitated and temporarily incapacitated, and the usual thing is a trustee would normally accompany the person to court and the trustees would lift the person into the courtroom and lift them back out.” She insisted that she was not placing any blame on the court, saying that no one had informed the magistrate of the situation, as in such cases these individuals would head outside to address accused persons in the vehicle. “I want this to be clear, this is the prison, not the magistrate. If the prison officers had indicated to the magistrate: ‘We have a gentleman who can’t come to you or he may have difficulty coming to you’, I’m sure the magistrate would have gone to the vehicle and addressed Mr Pinder, and dealt with the matter.” Mitchell-Gittens said no explanation was given in court as to why her client was transported in such a manner, and she was awaiting a response from the prison superintendent and the minister for answers. “It cannot be that you are transporting somebody like that, especially in circumstances where whatever injuries that he might have received, he got them while as a prisoner.” (JB)