A mother of  five who had beaten  her pregnant neighbour, because she “didn’t like her,” got a reprieve from her six-month jail sentence yesterday by the Court of Appeal. Instead, Linda Howe will pay a fine of $500 and compensation of $1,500 or in default, serve three months’ hard labour. The Court, comprising Justice Rolston Nelson and Justice Anthony Lucky, dismissed Howe’s appeal but varied her sentence. Howe, 32, a mother of five of John Elie Road, Chase Village, Chaguanas, was found guilty of assaulting her neighbour Therese Giles on July 24, 1999 and was sentenced to six months’ hard labour by Magistrate Annette McKenzi.

The State’s case  was that Giles, a neighbour for seven to eight years, was in her yard when Howe and another person attacked her. Using her fist, Howe beat Giles about her chest, back and abdomen, saying: “We don’t want you here. You have to leave. We don’t like you. You feel you too nice.” During the beating Giles asked Howe not to hit her any more in her abdomen since she was pregnant. Howe denied hitting Giles, but admitted setting fire to a bucket she had used to throw rubbish in her yard. She also accused Howe of removing two bricks from her house and smashing it among other things.  

The Court initially wanted to find out whether one of two appeals filed on behalf of Howe was bona fide and her attorney at the time had visited Howe in prison on January 22, 2001 to take instructions for the filing of the appeal. Jawara Mobota, Howe’s attorney at the appeal, could not give the Court the information, but Assistant DPP Devan Rampersad told the Court that he had information from the prison  which indicated that her attorney then had visited the prison. However, the procedure which he obtained the signed notice of appeal and the subsequent filing with the Clerk of the Peace was unorthodox. While the Court pronounced  that it was not the proper procedure to follow, DPP Rampersad said that in the interest of justice, he would not be objecting to the appeal being heard. After dismissing the appeal, the Court heard that Howe was a mother of five and the sole bread winner of the family.

Arnott Fabien, employee of Imjin Security, was yesterday committed by Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls to stand trial for the January 7 murder of a fellow security guard. Fabien, 38, of Irvine Street, Petit Bourg, was charged with the murder of 48-year-old Victor Mc Donald at North Post Road, Diego Martin. Fabien was arrested following investigations by ASP Fredericks, Insp Narcis Cadette, Sgt Anthony Lezama and other officers of the West End Police Station. The charge was laid indictably by Sgt Lezama.

Lezama, the last of 21 witnesses called to give evidence in the matter, testified yesterday. In his closing submission, defence attorney Lewellin Thompson attempted to make a case for self-defence. Fabien also reserved the right to call any witnesses or give evidence on his behalf. Magistrate Mc Nicolls then told Fabien he was satisfied that a prima facie case had been made against him and that he would have to stand trial at  the High Court.

THE DISABLED People International, Trinidad Chapter yesterday held a series of protests against discrimination by the private and public sectors. President of the group, George Daniel, explained that disabled people, or differently abled people as they  preferred to be called, are not treated like human beings by the people in authority. Daniel was speaking to reporters outside the National Flour Mills Compound, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, following an attempt to eject the group from the pavement in front of the company by security officers employed by NFM. The group has been holding a vigil in front of NFM for the last 20 days in protest of the company’s failure to employ one of its members.

Daniel explained that they spoke to the person in charge of the security detail that was employed to eject them, but no final decision was reached. He stated that the group will continue their actions until their demands are met. The group has also acquired the voluntary service of former Trade Unionist Clive Nunez, who stated that the end of discrimination of the differently abled is long overdue. He explained that the group has been having difficulties at various sectors in society, including the transportation and housing sector. He explained that the group had also demonstrated in front of the Public Transport Services Commission’s transport hub at City Gate over the transportation system and the National Housing Authority yesterday over the problems being experienced for transportation and the monthly payment for houses of differently abled people.

Nunez explained that in 2000, PTSC had made a decision to purchase five specially assembled buses for use by disabled persons. He explained that everything was in place, the buses had been located and the work needed on them finalised. However when the matter went before the government for approval, everything “fell down.” He explained that when the new government took office, they attempted to have the matter dealt with, but were informed that there was no budgetary allocation for the purchase of the buses in the large budget. “I want the government to tell me if all the things the government doing, including CEPEP and the large amount given to assist BWIA, was in the budgetary allocations.”

Nunez also explained that the group has been trying to get the NHA and the Housing Ministry to put some strategy in place to have special conditions made available to disabled people for housing units. He said these persons are unable to get a job to pay their bills and are required to pay rents in excess of $300 per month for housing units. He explained that last year, the group had made a request for this to be done. However when they spoke to the NHA, they were informed that once six months had expired on a document, they would have to reapply or re-submit that request. In response, NHA explained that a note is now before Cabinet seeking to have special conditions apply to disabled persons who require living accommodation through NHA. In addition, a recommendation was made to Cabinet for the Social Welfare Department to work along with the chapter for disabled persons towards purchasing units for its members. Communication Specialist for the NHA Lenore Joseph noted that housing applications, which have been received from disabled persons are currently being processed without any form of discrimination applied.

President General of the All Trinidad and Sugar General Workers’ Trade Union Rudranath Indarsingh has again accused the government of being involved in recent occupation of Caroni Lands.  He reiterated this complaint in light of the situaton at Chin Chin, Cunupia where Pastor Vishnu Lutchmansingh occupied lands and more recently where approximately 11 acres of Caroni Land was bulldozed at La Fortune. He also spoke of a “land grab” of over 50 acres earlier this year at the Rudranath Capildeo Learning Resource Centre. The occupants were eventually removed. Indarsingh, referring to the matter with Pastor Lutchmansingh, said  that it is as a result of certain individuals “getting signals within the political directorate.”  He again asked the government to be equitable “across the board” since no respect for decisions made by the Judiciary sets the pace for anarchy.

He said that not too long ago Lutchmansingh received an eviction notice for trespassing on the property. Indarsingh added: “I expect that he would be willing to accept the ruling of the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago.” He continued by saying that where Caroni lands have been occupied “the order of the Court has been eroded.” Lutchmansingh maintains that the land was given to him by the Prime Minister. The President General also noted that he feared “police infiltration,” as three police officers fron Special Branch yesterday requested to be present at the conference held at the union’s compound. He eventually refused to allow them in and they left.  The President General also lashed out at the formation of the Estate Management Business Development Company to manage the Caroni lands. He said this is their responsibility. The injunction against land use which Caroni filed in the High Court is due to come up again in court on June 2.

MURDER accused Darrel Vincent told police he went to Raffick Kabul’s Rio Claro home and during a confrontation tied a towel around Kabul’s mouth. This was contained in a statement signed by the accused and read to the jury yesterday as Vincent’s murder trial continued in the San Fernando High Court. Vincent, represented by attorney Indra Ramoutar-Liverpool, instructed by Kevin Ratiram, is before Justice Paula Mae Weekes in the Second Criminal Assizes. When Vincent took the witness stand, he denied that he volunteered a statement to police but only signed the document police showed him because they promised to let him go home.

“Since morning I leave home. Nobody know where I gone. I was tired and hungry. All these officers coming and asking me questions. It was frustrating me”, Vincent explained to State Prosecutor Joan Paul-Honore under cross-examination. Vincent told the jury that at the time of Kabul’s murder on May 7, 1997, he was at his apartment at Lower Hillside, San Fernando, with his wife and newborn baby. The accused claimed he was in Rio Claro on the weekend before the murder and spent the weekend with his friend, Oral Steel. Vincent testified that he travelled to Rio Claro on the Saturday to take back his gold ID band which Steel had borrowed. The accused said Steel told him he pawned it in a club, but when he and Steel went to the club, they were unsuccessful in getting it back. He recalled that he stayed in Rio Claro until Sunday, and that Steel’s father gave him money “to behave myself, to hold out”.

Vincent told the court that on May 9, 1997, around  1am he was asleep in his underwear when police arrived in the yard and began to interrogate him. He said police allowed him to dress himself and he was then taken to the San Fernando CID, then later to the Rio Claro Police Station where he was handcuffed to a gas cylinder for several hours. He said he saw Oral Steel handcuffed in another room. Vincent told the court that in the evening, Sgt Wright showed him a document and asked him to sign it. When he refused, the accused said he was threatened. Vincent testified: “I told him I was not going through with that. He said ‘All yuh come up here to kill people. I go show yuh how we does kill people up here’.” Vincent said he signed the statement because the police promised that he would be free to go. Under cross-examination, Vincent said that he knew the police were investigating a murder and that he was a suspect when he signed the statement. Vincent said he did not complain of the threats to the Justice of the Peace, no to the magistrate when he appeared in court on the murder charge. “I told the magistrate about the gold band,” Vincent said.

UROLOGICAL SURGEON Dr Phillip Ayoung-Chee yesterday condemned government’s  “planned attempt” to amend the Medical Board Act, which would allow foreign doctors to be granted a “special licensce” to practice medicine in Trinidad and Tobago without being supervised. Ayoung-Chee explained that the normal practice is for foreign and local doctors who are trained in non GMC recognised Medical Schools, to be given a temporary licence for three years, after which they may apply for full registration. He further explained that a national of Trinidad and Tobago, who has obtained a Government to Government scholarship to go to India to study medicine, was given a temporary licence for three years since the school he attended in India was a non GMC.

This, he said, clearly showed there was no planned discrimination against the UN and Cuban doctors. “The rules have been established for years,” stated Ayoung-Chee. Ayoung-Chee pointed out that over 65 doctors graduate annually. However, the Government is unable to retain their services mainly because of the poor remuneration packages and lack of health care planning by the government. He explained that a medical doctor with a student loan of $5,000 monthly, would never be attracted to a salary package of $8,600 for a 40-hour work week. He noted that an examination of the recommendations made by the British Medical Association and the Joint Royal Colleges, published in July 1998, revealed that “our health services” have severe deficiencies and deficits. Dr Ayoung-Chee also called on the Government to examine the proposals made by the Medical Professionals Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT) in 2001 for the positions of Primary Care Physician 11 to be implemented. He said if these posts are not created and filled soon, vacancies in the health sector will result in a medico-legal disaster.

NATIONAL TEAM UNITY (NTU) will not contest the upcoming Local Government Elections despite previous indications from party leader Ramesh Lawrence-Maharaj that those polls would provide the political foundation for NTU to build upon.  This was the word yesterday from NTU founding member Trevor Sudama who dismissed as nonsensical reports that he would be joining the People’s National Movement (PNM) government as part of an alleged, imminent Cabinet reshuffle. Sudama told Newsday NTU “decided to let this one pass” because it was in no shape to face the polls at this time. He said a considerable amount of groundwork needed to be done to create a third political force that would cater to the needs of persons who support neither the PNM nor the Opposition United National Congress (UNC). The former minister added that NTU will closely monitor the activities of both major parties during and after the elections. “We are going to see how this pans out.”

On reports that he would be part of any reshuffle of Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s Cabinet, Sudama scoffed: “Somebody is trying to make mischief. I have had no discussions with the PNM. I have never been supportive of the PNM.”  Sudama said that his views about the PNM and its pol-icies are well known in his weekly newspaper column and it was inconceivable to him that anyone could believe that he was actively seeking to join the Government. Following Sunday’s PNM General Council meeting at Balisier House, the Prime Minister said there was no imminent reshuffle of the Cabinet.

A Port-of-Spain jury yesterday found two young men guilty of committing sexual offences with a 12-year-old girl in 1996. Ryan Strong, 25, and Shaka Thomas, 25, of Arima, were found guilty of serious indecency with a minor by a nine-member jury comprised of seven women and two men in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Criminal Court. Strong was also found guilty of having sex with the girl. The incident occurred at Thomas’ house on March 23, 1996. Both men were 18 years old at the time. After hearing the verdict, presiding judge Justice Pamela Elder, questioned the role of sex education for school children. She asked whether or not sex education that advocates in favour of the distribution of condoms to school children would also be educating the children about sexual offences.

Elder stated that having sex with a person under the age of 14 years is a criminal offence and the same applied to children under the age of 16 even if they gave their consent. State prosecutor Kathy-Ann Waterman presented evidence indicating that the victim and a friend met the men who were maxi-taxi conductors at the time, at an ice-cream parlour. They  left the parlour and went to Thomas’ home. It was there that Strong inserted his finger inside the victim’s vagina and had sex with her. Thomas also took the girl’s hand, placed it on his penis and moved it up and down. On April 3, 1996, the girl accompanied by her mother made a report to the police. The defence claimed that the incident never happened and the men did not know the girl. They said an argument with the girl had occurred at the maxi-taxi stand and she took revenge by fabricating the charges.Attorney for Strong, Mario Merritt, said his client was a father of two, had no previous convictions and was the sole breadwinner of his family. He added that at the time of the incident Strong was a young man and was now beginning life as a man. He said Strong was still a young man and could be of some benefit to society.

Defence counsel for Thomas, Lemuel Murphy, stated that Thomas had already spent two years in prison for the offence. He said Thomas attends a church and has “tried to change his lifestyle away from the maxi-taxi culture.” Murphy asked that Thomas be allowed another opportunity to serve society. However, Elder said the court was troubled by the evidence in the case because at the time of the incident the prisoners themselves were teenagers. She said she needed time to consider an appropriate sentence. She reserved sentencing to Thursday.