Englishman to stand trial for manslaughter

A 24-year-old Englishman was yesterday committed to stand trial on the single count of motor manslaughter after a Port-of-Spain magistrate ruled there was enough evidence to go before a jury in one of the charges faced by the accused. Magistrate Gillian David, who presided in the court in which Miles O’Connor was charged on two counts for the offence, discharged him of one count. O’Connor, of 62 Whitney, Hertfordshire, England, was on trial in the Port-of-Spain Seventh Court charged with causing the deaths of 38-year-old Dhanmattie Harrilal and visiting Venezuelan national, Jose Alexis Gonzalez Berbesi, by dangerous driving on Christmas Day 2003.

O’Connor was driving one of the vehicles involved in the three-vehicle smash-up on the Priority Bus Route near the Morvant intersection. Harrilal and Gonzalez were both killed in the accident. Yesterday the prosecution closed its case, informing the magistrate there was no indication that their last witness, a Venezuelan national, would take the stand. The prosecution was given six weeks to make arrangements for Jesus Alberto Carrero to come to Trinidad to give evidence in the matter. Carrero, however, failed to show. Closure of the prosecution’s case allowed O’Connor’s attorney, Karl Hudson-Phillips QC, to make submissions on his client’s behalf. He submitted that the prosecution’s case made out against his client was not a very strong one.

“The evidence before you seems to indicate that there was a change in the traffic lights to which the driver of one of the two maxis involved, responded. But there is other evidence from another driver that the lights were on green in his favour,” Husdon-Phillips said. After the submissions, the magistrate told the accused he was discharged on one of the two matters before the court, as a result of the absence of essential evidence relating to one of the matters. “Proper identification of the body of deceased persons is an essential element in matters of this nature and without it, a proper charge cannot be sustained. In the circumstances, you are discharged of this one,” David told O’Connor.

With respect to O’Connor’s other charge — causing the death of Dhanmattie Harrilal by dangerous driving — the magistrate told the accused she found there was sufficient evidence against him for the matter to be heard before a jury. “A prima facie case has been made out against you in this matter. You are committed to stand trial at the next sitting of the Assizes,” said the magistrate. Hudson-Phillips wasted no time in applying for bail for his client, noting that the accused, although employed in England, had family ties in Trinidad and has so far not shown any indication of being a fugitive, or absconding. The magistrate granted the accused bail in the sum of $80,000 to be approved by a Clerk of the Peace. O’Connor’s uncle, Patrick O’Connor, secured his bail.