The following excerpt is taken directly from the Nation newspaper of 23 October 2025, without edits. The pronouncement by the Director of Public Prosecutions is foreboding—for those willing to listen.
DPP: I cannot stay silent
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS (DDP) Alliston Seale, SC, says he will not be silent.
That was his declaration yesterday to those who have called for him to temper his comments on the death penalty and other topical issues.
“People feel I should shut my mouth,” he said in the No. 4 Supreme Court. “I can’t do that. I ain’t got nowhere else to go. Trump ain’t want me so I can’t go nowhere. The only place I can’t get deport from is this little rock and I plan to live out the rest of my days here and hopefully I will do it.”
Seale was responding to a social media post which he said was written by a former colleague.
“I read a post where one of my former colleagues said I shouldn’t be talking about the death penalty because I’m supposed just to carry out the law as I see it or as the law is, because he probably thinks I live on Mars,” the DPP said. “But I live in Barbados and I’ve got to live in this country.”
He was making submissions on what sentence should be visited upon convicted murderer Gabriel Shando Hayde, of Colleton, St John, who was found guilty of murdering Kerwin Howell on February 16, 2020.
He was represented by Senior Counsel Angella Mitchell-Gittens, while Seale and State Counsel Maya Kellman prosecuted.
The DPP said Hayde’s case was “very troubling” as it was one where witnesses were afraid to testify.
“Some couldn’t remember. Some were plain intimidated. I spoke to a witness and her children and all they were asking was ‘Who is going to protect me?’” When that witness did eventually testify, her house was subsequently shot up after Hayde was convicted.
“Am I saying he did it? No, it is impossible. He was in prison. But I’m saying how the tentacles of this gang activity reaches outside of the prison walls and it’s almost scary,” Seale said. “There is clearly some type of reprisal.
“So although this cannot go towards sentence, it shows you the tentacles are far-reaching. People still seem to have some control over what is going on outside and that is troubling.”
The prosecutor noted the firearm was not recovered, which meant it was still in society and “out there to cause mayhem in Barbados”.
He added gone were the days when Sundays were considered peaceful days, as Howell was gunned down on a Sunday, an incident from which his family has not yet recovered.
“People are not choosing what day to commit crime or what time. Broad daylight people are gunned down in Barbados on busy streets.
“But you know why I have to speak? Because I don’t know how far the tentacles will reach,” he said as he lamented what he called a code of silence.
“If this is the way Barbados is heading, I’m going to speak about it every time.”
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