Police witness called a liar, master of manipulation
Acting police inspector Wayne Dick was called a liar and described yesterday as a master of manipulating the facts, a person who has a plaster for every sore, the ability to wiggle out of situations, stretch reports to fit the evidence and distort the facts to make them clear. The accusations against Dick were made by defence attorney Ian Stuart Brook, during Dick’s testimony in the trial of murdered school teacher Shurland Soverall. Yesterday was the fourth day Dick spent on the witness stand before Justice Mark Mohammed and a jury of nine women and three men in the Port-of-Spain Assizes where Clint Wilson is on trial for Soverall’s murder. During three of those days he had been subjected to intense cross-examination by Brook. Brook repeatedly begged Dick to only answer the questions put to him and not go off on a tangent and make statements to the court. At one point Brook became so agitated that he pounded the witness stand and shouted to Dick "answer the question." Mohammed had to ask Brook to control himself and later warned Dick on more than one occasion to just answer the questions he was being asked. In response to one of those questions, Dick said he viewed Wilson as a very intelligent man, and went on to say that he did not see much of a difference in intelligence between Brook and Wilson. The only difference, Dick said, was Brook’s qualifications. While Dick was serious, his assertion did not seem to amuse the jury, bringing only a smirk on some of their faces. Dick was one of two police officers to whom Wilson confessed to having killed Soverall and throwing his body off a cliff at Lady Young Road, on the night of July 16, 2000. Wilson is being defended by Brook and Brent Ali, while State prosecutors in the matter are Alexander Prince and Natasha George. When hearing resumes tomorrow, Brook will continue his cross-examination of Dick.
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"Police witness called a liar, master of manipulation"