Attorney General John Jeremie SC has emphasised that while the Home Invasion (Self-Defence and Defence of Property) Bill, 2025 is not the government’s only strategy to combat crime, it squarely addresses the harsh realities confronting communities.
Leading the debate in the Senate on Tuesday, the Attorney General warned that the penalty for the offence of home invasion is increased when the accused is a gang member or participant in any organised criminal activity.
“This government is at war with the gangs, and we are encouraging those who are involved in gang-related activity, we are encouraging all of those who are involved in gang-related activity to find something else to do.”
Clause (6) (2) (k) of the Bill serves as a precautionary measure, where paragraph K states that the court is to consider whether there’s a possibility that the occupant could have safely retreated.
The AG maintained that the government does not condone vigilante justice, hence it views this as a safeguard rather than a contradiction.
“For example, if an occupant is safely locked in a heavily burglar-proofed and alarmed house, and sees a person standing in his front yard, and proceeds to shoot at the person and kills him, is it reasonable, in those circumstances, to say that because the occupant has no duty to retreat, his actions were necessary, reasonable, and proportionate to the threat he believed to exist?”
He added that the Bill will be accompanied by the liberalisation of legal access to firearms for citizens, continued reform within the Police Service, a victims’ rights charter, and trials taking place in a short space of time.
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of the People, Social Development and Family Services, Senator Dr. Natalie Chaitan-Maharaj, reassured that the Home Invasion Bill 2025 is not a broad stand-your-ground law, but rather, will see a specific focus placed on the dwelling house.
In her contribution to the debate, she condemned what she described as an impractical vision of conflict resolution in a home invasion scenario being suggested by the opposition.
“Retreating in one’s own home is not a de-escalation. It is an act of tactical foolishness that hands every possible advantage – knowledge of the layout, speed of movement, proximity to family members – to the invading criminal. The duty to retreat is a doctrine that works perfectly in the tidy hypothetical world of a courtroom yet collapses instantly when confronted by the blunt brutality of the reality of a masked man wielding a gun at the foot of their child’s bed.”