The man Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller claimed is responsible for the 2002 murder of his son Mario yesterday denied the "scurrilous remarks" and challenged Miller to make his claims outside Parliament where he has no legal protection.

"I had absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Miller's son's death in any form," Dion Bowe told The Nassau Guardian in an interview at the office of his attorney, Wayne Munroe.

"I wish to state that to the Bahamian public."

Bowe said it is unfortunate that Miller has attacked him on the floor of the House of Assembly and "defamed" his reputation.

He has also asked Speaker of the House Dr. Kendal Major to make Miller substantiate his claims or withdraw them.

"As a father of five, I understand Mr. Miller's anguish and grief on the tragic loss of his son," Bowe said in a prepared statement.

"His public pronouncement in The Bahamas Parliament using my name in relation to his son's demise is injurious and psychologically damaging to me and my family, especially my dear mother.

"It is particularly disturbing as it is communicated in a forum where Mr. Miller has absolute privilege and so cannot be held accountable for the truth of his statement.

"He has taken advantage of the good people of Tall Pines to attack me personally knowing that I cannot defend myself in that place or call him to account in the courts."

Mario Miller's mutilated body was found in June 2002 in bushes near the Super Value food store in Winton not far from his home.

After three trials, no one has been convicted of murdering Mario Miller, who was 28 when he died.

"I realize that a lot of my colleagues in here dislike when I talk about it because they don't feel the pain that I feel," said Leslie Miller in the House of Assembly on Monday.

"They don't feel the hurt that my family is feeling because it hasn't happened to them." Miller went on to detail an experience he had with a man less than a week after Mario's murder.

He claimed that man was Dion Bowe, who told him that "some guys out of Jamaica" came to The Bahamas on a boat and they murdered his son.

Miller said he later learnt from the police and others that Bowe had told his girlfriend that he was going to have Mario killed.

APPALLED But Bowe said yesterday he is "appalled that a senior member of Parliament can rise to his feet at anytime and savage the name and reputation of a private citizen with scurrilous remarks without any recourse for that private citizen to respond".

He said he feels for Miller as he and his family search for closure.

"Mr. Miller, I am deeply saddened by your loss as a friend and as a brother in Christ, but I just wish that you would come to some peace and closure with this, and I suggest that you seek the Lord because he is the answer to all this," Bowe told The Nassau Guardian.

"I feel that the message should be strong to the community and we should be getting together as a nation so that other families don't go through the same torture as Mr. Miller.

"We as Bahamians, we need to pray together and parents need to do a better job with their kids and give the message of peace and harmony."

In the House of Assembly on Monday, Miller said there are times when he wishes God would "take me out of here" to allow him to be with his son.

"Sometimes at night, Mr. Speaker, after these deep experiences, I would go and get my shotgun out of the closet and go downstairs, and by the time I get in the car, I would hear mama's voice saying, 'Go back inside. You're only going to get in trouble. You got your other children to live for.'" he said.

Asked whether this statement worried him, Bowe said, "I am concerned and so should any private citizen of The Bahamas that if someone is in possession of a firearm that can harm the life of somebody and basically says without the voice of mama stopping you, what happen if mama doesn't say that word and he gets to his car with his shotgun? Would someone be mourning the loss of someone?

"I feel that Mr. Miller in his grief should seek the Lord for satisfaction and to heal his wounds because not only him has lost a loved one." Munroe said he is related to Miller by blood, but what Miller did was wrong. .

"Mr. Bowe is prepared to confirm that he had nothing at all to do with the death of Mr. Miller's son.

He is prepared to do that, but in terms of a wider conversation about it, Mr. Miller would have to come out of the sanctity of Parliament, out of the protected halls of Parliament into the public arena," he said.

"There are limited exceptions where it is acceptable to speak about a private citizen.

"It is generally in regards to Parliament's business or government's business. This conversation had nothing to do with government business."

Munroe and Bowe noted that the Constitutional Commission recently indicated the need to consider providing some protection to private citizens "against abuses like this".

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian