Officials deny backlog of bodies at Forensic centre

LEADER of the Opposition Basdeo Panday’s allegation of a backlog of bodies at the Forensic Science Centre, that is preventing autopsies from being conducted, was received with stifled laughter from Forensic Science Centre officials yesterday. One official told Newsday, “There is no truth in that statement. At times more than one body is brought to the centre for autopsy, and we have to roster them for different times.

“Because some autopsies take longer than others, we sometimes have to defer a case to next day, but this does not mean there is a backlog. “We simply work by systems. On Wednesday by midday we had completed the autopsies on Lorenza Alleyne and Ijah Williamson, who were shot the day before in Belmont.” The official was responding to allegations made by Panday Monday night at the Diego Martin Secondary School.

Panday had claimed that there was a backlog of autopsies. Efforts to speak to the director at the Forensic Science Centre proved futile, but a number of police officers who visited the centre for various reasons all agreed that there was no backlog problems at the centre. “From time to time a body has to be deferred to the next day, but this is not a backlog,” an officer said.