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Jamaica: security to be increased after retirees murdered

PICTURED: Gayle and Charlie Anderson were murdered in their home at the end of last month.

THE JAMAICA Constabulary Force (JCF) has pledged to increase security for people returning to the island following a number of brutal murders.

In recent months, five people who retired to the island from Britain and Canada have been killed.

The force said: “The JCF is offering assurance to returning residents that their safety and security remains a high priority of the organisation, strategies and support systems are currently being bolstered for their protection.

“This comes against the background of the recent incidents against returning residents and the concerns expressed by members of the diaspora to the commissioner, whilst in recent meetings in the United Kingdom.”

The announcement comes after the murder of Charlie Anderson, 74, and his wife Gayle, 71.

The married couple had recently left Manchester to set up home in Jamaica. They were found stabbed to death and their bodies were burned after a firebomb attack.

In addition to increasing protection, the JCF said that it would conduct a review into all the serious unsolved crimes against the roughly 30,000 people retiring to the country from abroad.

Among the new security measures are plans to establishment a point of contact for people of Jamaican origin living in Britain, the US and Canada and a system for police to check the backgrounds of those who returning residents are consider employing.

In January two Canadian pensioners were killed and in April, Delroy Walker, a 63-year-old charity worker from Birmingham was murdered.

In 2012, Errol Bennett was fatally stabbed in his home on the island.

Bennett, 59, had returned to Jamaica from Preston, Lancashire.

His daughter Zoe fought a three-year long battle to bring his killer to justice and a man was eventually convicted for his murder.

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