Magistrate wants Sean Luke’s case expedited

In calling for a response from the DPP, Magistrate Ayers-Caesar said she wanted the case against the 13 and 16-year-old accused to be expedited since they were minors.

When the matter was called yesterday in the Couva court, prosecutor Sgt Sharon Corbett had indicated that the DPP was yet to appoint a State prosecutor since the file was sent to the DPP’s office only yesterday.

Corbett along with Attorney Leon Gokool, who was holding for Wayne Sturge, attorney of the accused asked the court for a long adjournment. But Magistrate Ayers-Caesar said that in the interest of justice she wanted the case to start as quickly as possible.

She then asked Stroude, who was there on another matter, if he could contact DPP Geoffrey Henderson to enquire of the status of the case.

Magistrate Ayers-Caesar subsequently stood down the matter for a few minutes to await the DPP’s response.

When Stroude returned he told the magistrate that the DPP was in the Port-of-Spain High Court dealing with Basdeo Panday’s bail application hearing. However, he was able to get Assistant DPP, Roger Gaspard, who gave the assurance that once the file is received a State prosecutor will be appointed to the case.

Ayers-Caesar said she would adjourn the matter to May 8, 2006 to get a feedback from the DPP’s office.

Luke’s body was found on March 28,2006, under a patch of grass in a canefield at the back of his home on Henry Street (West), Orange Valley.

He had bled to death after his internal organs ruptured after he was buggered and sodomised with a cane stalk.

Yesterday the mother and stepfather of the 13-year-old accused were verbally abused by the relatives of Luke outside the courthouse, prompting the crowd to converge around them.

Security guards at the courthouse had to unlock the gates for the mother and stepfather to escape the angry crowd.