A chair­man has been sworn in to head up the Com­mis­sion of In­quiry in­to the div­ing tragedy which oc­curred ear­li­er this year, at fa­cil­i­ties owned by Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed.

Mr Jerome Lynch Q.C., took his Oath of Of­fice as a Com­mis­sion­er and Chair­man yes­ter­day (Wednes­day, Ju­ly 6) at Pres­i­dent’s House.

The fol­low­ing is an of­fi­cial state­ment re­leased on the mat­ter…

Mr Jerome Lynch Q.C., took his Oath of Of­fice as a Com­mis­sion­er and Chair­man to the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry to ex­am­ine and en­quire in­to all of the cir­cum­stances that led to the trag­ic in­ci­dents which oc­curred on Fri­day Feb­ru­ary 25, 2022, at fa­cil­i­ties owned by Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed, lo­cat­ed at No. 36 Sealine Ris­er on Berth No. 6, which led to the deaths of four em­ploy­ees of LM­CS Lim­it­ed be­fore Her Ex­cel­len­cy Paula-Mae Weekes O.R.T.T., Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go at Pres­i­dent’s House on Wednes­day Ju­ly 6, 2022.

Mr Lynch is a Se­nior Lit­i­ga­tor at Trott and Dun­can in Bermu­da and a Queen’s Coun­sel at Clois­ters Cham­bers in Lon­don.  His prac­tice in­cludes de­fend­ing in all se­ri­ous crime, in­clud­ing mur­der and manslaugh­ter, fraud, cor­rup­tion, Com­pa­ny breach­es, in­sid­er trad­ing, mon­ey laun­der­ing and oth­er white-col­lar crime. He has been reg­is­tered as a se­nior train­er by Lin­coln’s Inn and reg­u­lar­ly lec­tures around the globe on ad­vo­ca­cy and ethics.

Mr Lynch is the hold­er of a Bach­e­lor of Arts De­gree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lan­cashire. He was called to the Bar of Eng­land and Wales in 1983, and was ap­point­ed as a Queen’s Coun­sel in 2000. In ad­di­tion, Mr Lynch has been ad­mit­ted to prac­tice in Bermu­da, Turks & Caicos, the British Vir­gin Is­lands and Cay­man Is­lands. He be­came a bencher of Lin­coln’s Inn in 2008 and an Hon­orary Fel­low of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lan­cashire, his al­ma mater, in 2011.