Judge allows media to see photos

DESPITE vehement objections by a defence attorney, the media was allowed to view the graphic photos taken of the bodies of the three persons who were brutally murdered in Cascade approximately two and a half years ago. The photos were taken by police photographer Cpl Keith Louison, during whose testimony copies of the photos were viewed by Justice Herbert Volney, the jury, State prosecutors George Busby and Trevor Ward, defence attorneys Wayne Sturge and Mario Merritt and the media.

Sitting in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court, Volney over-ruled the objection by Sturge that showing the photos to the media could negatively affect the trial. The  particulars of the case, Volney said, was transported “to the wider community” via the press and instructed that a set of copies of the photos be shown to the members of the media in the courtroom. He did, however, reassure the concerned attorney that the photos were not for publication.  Two of the six photos were taken outside the Mt Anne Drive house at Second Avenue in Cascade, the scene of  the murders which allegedly occurred sometime between December 11 and 13.  The remaining four were taken inside the house.  Among these were shots of the bloody bodies of the deceased, 59-year-old John Cropper, 83-year-old Maggie Lee, and 51-year-old visiting Canadian resident, Lynette Lichglow Pearson.

The photos showed the three, gagged and bound, in the bathroom of the master bedroom of the house.  Cropper’s body was inside in the tub and  Lee and Lichglow-Pearson’s  were lying on the floor next to the tub. Two men, 25-year-old Lester Pitman and 21-year-old Daniel Agard are before the court charged with the murders.  Agard is a relative of the victims. After he had taken the photos on December 13, 2001, Louison said, he returned to the Port-of-Spain Criminal Records Office, where he took a photo of a fingerprint impression on a wooden jewel box that had been removed from the crime scene. He said he made a contact print and forwarded it to his superior, Insp Stephen Ramroop.

Louison said on December 14, Ramroop, using chemical powder, lifted the print from the jewelry box and he (Louison) made a contact print and gave it to Ramroop. The corporal, under cross-examination by Merritt and Sturge, admitted he had lied on oath when he had given evidence regarding the case at the Magistrates’ Court in 2002. He said the reason he had done so was because he had then been intimidated by Sturge. He said he saw the “servant of Satan” when he looked at Sturge. Louison insisted his action was not a deliberate intention to mislead the tribunal before whom he was giving evidence, but as a result of his unfamiliarity with the Standing Orders. Hearing resumes on Monday.