They lied and lied and lied

“THEY LIED and lied and lied” was what State prosecutor Joan Honore-Paul said of the defence of murder accused Kenrick London and his wife, Chandrouti, who are on trial for the murder of the couple’s daughter, Vidya. “How could you possibly believe anything they have said?” Honore-Paul asked the 12-member mixed jury panel as she summed up the State’s case after five weeks of evidence.

The prosecutor reminded the jury of the different accounts which the husband and wife told the court of how their daughter died. She recalled that Kenrick testified that the child died a natural death at home after an illness, but did not report the death to the authorities because he was afraid that they would be prohibited from having more children. “Kenrick is not a witness of truth, and has admitted to lying over and over again in his testimony,” Honore-Paul remarked, pointing to several inconsistencies in his testimony while in the witness box.

The prosecutor then turned to Chandrouti’s testimony in which the accused said that her husband killed Vidya by covering Vidya’s mouth with his hand until the child stopped breathing. “Chandrouti changes her story at will,” Honore-Paul charged, pointing out that Chandrouti testified in 2001 that she awoke one day and the child was dead, then months later said that she saw Kenrick hold the child by her neck and throw her in a latrine. “Now in 2003 she said that Kenrick put his hand over the child’s mouth and when he removed it, the child was not breathing. “Both Kenrick and Chandrouti did the same thing — they lied and lied and lied,” Honore-Paul said.

The prosecutor called on the jury to reject the accused’s testimony and accept the State’s case against the accused, based on confession statements which Kenrick and Chandrouti gave to the police when they were arrested in 1997. Trial judge Justice Ivor Archie is expected to give his summation of the case on Friday.