Arouca motorist acquitted of manslaughter charge

AN AROUCA man, who claimed to have no recollection of the accident which claimed the life of his girlfriend, was yesterday freed of a manslaughter charge at the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court. George Atherton, 39, of Railway Road, Arouca was found not guilty of the unlawful killing of Ingrid Holder arising out of a vehicular accident. The accident had occurred at the intersection of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway and Streatham Lodge Road, Tunapuna on the morning of February 3, 1994.

Atherton, Ingrid and her sister Alicia Holder were returning from a carnival fete when the pick-up van, driven by Atherton, slammed into a fire hydrant and a wall. Atherton sustained head injuries which resulted in amnesia.  Ingrid died four days later at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Alicia, who had been warded at the hospital for two weeks following the accident, had testified that Atherton had been driving way above the speed limit that morning. The acquitted man, however, said that she could not have been telling the truth because he was usually a responsible driver. He was represented by attorney Pamela Elder SC.  State attorney Marlon Sambujuran prosecuted.