British soldier Perry Stratford - he's accused of beating up his Belizean girlfriend, throwing her possessions out the window in the river and then stealing her RAV4 to get away. It all happened when he was visiting Belize in December of 2022. He had already been indicted to face trial in the Belize high court, but today his case took a curious turn - and, tonight, he's a free man - who will never face a Belizean court to answer for his crime.
Two years ago, Stratford beat and kidnapped his fiancé after he read her text messages and accused her of cheating. He was detained by police shortly after and charged with kidnapping, harm, theft and damage to property.
He was remanded because he is a flight risk - but Justice Ricardo Sandcroft made an unusual exception - and allowed him to be held in the custody of his own army at the BATSUB Barracks.
Well, since then, BATSUB has employed him on the base as a part of UK forces - which allowed his attorney to invoke a jurisdictional issue. Under the agreement between the Belize Government with the British Forces, soldiers accused of a crime in Belize, will not face a Belizean court, they will instead face a court martial.
Justice Sandcroft asked both sides to make applications on this in April at a bail hearing - and he today handed down his decision. He found that the Belize justice system has no jurisdiction to try him here in Belize- even though when the offences were committed he was a visitor, not attached to the BATSUB unit. With that, the judge ordered the return of Stratford's passport, and, presumably, he is free to return home.
Sandcroft's decision - we stress, was made while Stratford had already been indicted before another judge, Justice Nanton. His action now effectively quashes the indictment here in Belize.
So will he face a British military court martial? We reached out to the officer commanding BATSUB, but at news time, we had not gotten a comment. Stratford was represented by Kimberly Wallace of Bradley Ellis & Co.
