2 testify against university student

TWO WITNESSES testified for the prosecution yesterday in the manslaughter case brought against university student Miles O’Connor in connection with the death of a Venezuelan man and a housewife in a vehicle smash-up at the intersection of the Priority Bus Route and the Churchill Roosevelt Highway Extension in Morvant on Christmas Day last year. Maxi-taxi drivers Purushtum Sharma and Oscar Joseph completed their evidence before Magistrate Gillian David in the Port-of-Spain Seventh Magistrates’ Court. O’Connor, 24, of Greenview Gardens, Saddle Road, Santa Cruz, and also of Whitney Drive in Hertforshire, England, is charged with driving motor vehicle PBE 3413 in a dangerous manner on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway Extension in Morvant, on December 25 2003, causing the deaths of Venezuelan Jose Alexis Gonzalez Berbesi and Dhanmattie Harrilal.

Karl Hudson-Phillips QC, a judge of the International Criminal Court, was back in court yesterday after a prolonged absence due to surgery. He appeared with Ravi Rajcommar for the university student at the preliminary inquiry. Theodore Guerra SC appeared, looking after the interest of the dead Venezuelan’s family. Cpl Addison, of the Court and Process Branch, was the court prosecutor. Sharma, who lives in Sangre Grande, was the first witness to give evidence. He has been a driver for the past 19 years and was one of the persons injured in the Christmas Day crash. The second witness was Oscar Joseph, who lives at Serraneau Road, Belmont. He was a maxi-taxi driver at the time of the accident, but is now unemployed. He has been a driver for the past 35 years. Magistrate David fixed November 2 and 4 for further hearing of the inquiry.