Every few years the Cayman Islands receive a battering from the hurricanes that regularly cut a swathe of devastation through Central America, the Caribbean and the southern US. There's been little serious damage in recent years, although 18 months ago Hurricane Michelle passed not far west of the islands, producing a storm surge that caused damage along the shoreline of Grand Cayman's main tourist centre, Seven Mile Beach.

The hurricane that tore across Cayman, its political circles and its financial community from the courtroom of the territory's senior judge on January 14 may not have left any physical scars on its landscape and buildings, but its impact may prove more long-lasting than that of Michelle, especially regarding the islands' relationship with the UK, of which Cayman is a dependent territory.

After more than six months of increasingly bewildering proceedings, Chief Justice Anthony Smellie brought to a sensational end the trial on money-laundering charges of four former officers of Euro Bank Corporation, following the admission by Brian Gibbs, head of the islands' Financial Reporting Unit, that he had destroyed evidence on the instruction of a UK agency widely presumed to be MI6.