State lawyer takes over hidden body case

When the matter was called in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court yesterday, the police prosecutor informed Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls that state attorney Andrew Pilgrim has been appointed to prosecute at the preliminary inquiry.

O’Brien, 31, of Belmont Valley Road, Belmont, was present but his attorney Selwyn Ross was absent. Mc Nicolls asked whether the prosecution was ready but he was informed that Pilgrim was at the Tunapuna Magistrates’ Court.

The inquiry was put off to May 1. O’Brien was remanded on $20,000 bail.

It is alleged that O’Brien removed the body from Santa Cruz and dumped it at Tram Trail Road in St Augustine.

The body was that of San Fernando real estate businessman Gerald Gopaul who was kidnapped from the Diamond Recreation Bar in San Fernando on July 8, last year. He was found dead by soldiers 11 days later wrapped in plastic.

Two soldiers and two civilians have already been charged with Gopaul’s murder. Several others were charged with his kidnapping.

O’Brien was charged with being an accessory after the fact, that is, concealing Gopaul’s body.

In another matter before the same court, 18-year-old Kellon Howard, the son of a policewoman, appeared on two murder charges.

Howard, of Carr Street, Belmont, is charged with the murder of Trevelyn Francois at Bridge Road, Waterwheel, Diego Martin on February 6.

He was also charged with the murder of Anton Nicholson at Field Trace, Blue Basin, Diego Martin on March 19. The case was postponed to April 18.