Murder accused Sheldon “Skelly” Lovell seemed to be in very high spirits on Friday as he sang to the Port-of-Spain Magistrates Eighth Court. There was an outburst of laughter as Lovell gave his rendition of a love song. “Baby I love you, won’t you marry me” and made remarks and gestures to the female reporters who were present. His singing ceased, however, when Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls walked into the court. Mc Nicolls asked the Police Prosecutor if the State was ready to proceed with the trial but was met with a negative response. “Sir the State will be ready by the next two hearings,” he replied.

Lovell, 31, is jointly charged along with Shawn “Gumbo” Vincent, 29, and Brent “Small Brent” Danglade for kidnapping and murdering Dennis Jodhan. The trio was also charged together with Jason Joseph, for falsely imprisoning Jodhan. Jodhan, 30, was kidnapped from his home at Evans Street, Curepe, opposite his father’s business place, Dumplin’s Mini Mart. A ransom of $80,000 was demanded for his safe return. The matter was adjourned to October 3. As Lovell walked out of the court he again began to sing, “Baby I’m leaving, must be on my way.”

A CONVERSATION between kidnappers on Friday night and the father of  the country’s latest kidnapped victim, Shakti Pooran of Rousillac Village, South Trinidad, did not seem to go down well for a possible safe release. Shakti, 19, the son of proprietor of Pooran’s Glass Suppliers of San Fernando, Gopaul Pooran, went missing on Thursday. His kidnappers are demanding $200,000 for his release. Sunday Newsday visited the Pooran family at their businessplace on Rushworth Street and spoke to relatives who were stunned and in deep grief. Pooran is the father of three and son Shakti worked with him in what is a small cottage-type workshop in which the family are involved in glass-cutting and building various types of exotic household funiture from glass. They have another branch at Vistabella, a short distance away close to Marabella. The family live downstairs their businessplace in the heart of San Fernando, obliquely opposite Scotiabank and a stone’s throw from Southern Police Headquarters. When Sunday Newsday visited shortly before midday, relatives woke Pooran from sleep. He had been up all night, they said. Pooran said that around 11.45 pm the phone in his living room rang and he answered. “We wuh we money’ That is what he said,”

Pooran told Sunday Newsday. “I said..’hello’ and the person said ‘Yuh make up the thing,” Pooran, rocking back on a chair, told Sunday Newsday. It was the fifth telephone call from the kidnappers and Pooran said he is certain the person on the other end could not have been someone much older than 20 years. “And I can say, the person have a voice of an Indian,” Pooran said. The businessman said he held the phone to his ear and replied almost immediately: “Yes I make up something; but I want to hear my son’s voice.” Pooran said the kidnapper asked him: “You wuh meh bring the boy for yuh?” The kidnapper, he added, then told him: “See me, I duh want to go to jail nah.” Pooran said that he heard another male voice in the background and he again, raising his voice, said: “I raise something but we have to negotiate.” The conversation continued during which the kidnapper asked Pooran for his cellular number. “Then he told me ‘the longer we keep him the money will go up’,” Pooran told Sunday Newsday.

President George Maxwell Richards was reported in Saturday’s Newsday as suggesting the removal of exams in favour of another yardstick to measure progress, addressing the President’s Medal presentation ceremony on Friday at President’s House. In fact he suggested it was the “spectre of exams” that be removed, and moreso he acknowledged exams as being a yardstick.

The President actually stated: “Learning should be made enjoyable throughout our educational system and it may be assumed that one way in which that may be accomplished is by removing the spectre of exams which occur with uncomfortable regularity, for some, as we move from stage to stage in the educational system. However, there must be some yardstick by which to measure progress and to encourage students to extend themselves beyond the average level of achievement, as they reach for excellence.”

THE BULLET that was lodged in the head of 13-year-old Daniella Carrington was removed Friday night during surgery, sources said yesterday. However, the teen is still being closely watched by authorities at the Mount Hope Medical Sciences Complex.  The surgery was done in an attempt to save her life. Young Carrington was shot in the head by a seven-year-old male relative last Tuesday. Since then, doctors have kept Carrington on a ventilator. Police said Carrington and her relative were among others who were left in a vehicle, which was parked outside the Camelot apartment. The seven-year-old boy was said to have found a gun inside a pocket of the vehicle and fired a shot which hit Daniella in the head. PCs Nirmal Ramjattan and Selwyn Hobbs of the St Joseph Criminal Investigations Depar-tment (CID) are continuing investigations.

A man robs a bank and later hijacks a plane, both he says, to make a political protest. Can he be justified? You be the judge. He’s seen tumultuous times, he’s fathered 21 children, and his dreadlocks are yellowing but Auburn “Black Boy” Mason has a zest that belie his 65 years of age. His soul seems not to be burdened by all that has happened to him. Indeed even as he recounts serving prison time in Barbados and most-recently the UK, he talks with an occasional glint of boyish mischief in his eye. And like an errant schoolboy caught in the act by his headmaster, Mason can always offer a good “reason” for why he did what he did. Mason was recently released from a British prison for hijacking an aircraft in 2000 to protest the refusal of Switzerland to grant him asylum from alleged political persecution in Trinidad and Tobago.

While not fully apologetic, he now wants to put his past deeds behind him, and play a part in helping stop the country’s epidemic of youth murders.
Sadly just months before his return, his stepson was killed and son wounded during a beating by a Mayaro mob, in a strange incident which Mason claims is just the latest event in a long history of persecution by his political enemies. Mason’s story began in 1970s in Trinidad where he recounts being jailed for Black Power activities on Nelson Island with personalities like Makandal Daaga and the late George Weekes. As a member of the National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF) and claiming he was acting in protest of apartheid in South Africa, he robbed Barclays Bank in Barbados and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. “Barclays Bank was financing the racist regime of South Africa. Both were our enemies. We were waging war on Barclays Bank. These bank raids were to finance the movement to buy arms”.

After his release and upon his return to Trinidad, despite international tours with a steelband, life remained unsettled for Mason. A common thread running through the ups and downs of his life is his belief that he is being hounded for his former opposition to the PNM, even attributing such persecution to the recent killing and wounding of his stepson and son. This persecution arose he said since Black Power days and most recently in 2000 when he claims to have been wrongly photographed burning a PNM flag during a UNC walkabout of Laventille. He claims the flag was thrust in front of his face by a elderly female PNM supporter while at the same time another unknown person suddenly set it on fire, he then was unwittingly being photographed with the burning flag. Alleging a long-standing and politically-motivated campaign of police harassment against him in Trinidad, in 1999 he flew to Switzerland where he spent nearly a year appealing for refugee status on the grounds of alleged political persecution.

He chose Switzerland, he said, because it did not require an entry visa and significantly it housed the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
In Switzerland he spent 10 months in two refugee camps applying for political asylum. Living with war-refugees from Chech-enya and Kosovo, he had a paid job in the camp kitchen and in clearing a road, and even had some freedom to travel out from the camp. His asylum plea in Switzerland failed be-cause TT was not listed as a “hotspot” country and it still had a constitutional government, although Mason recounted: “Of course this is nonsense. Black people are dying like flies here.” Mason remembered July 17, 2000 when he was handed two plane-tickets — from Zurich to Gatwick and from Gatwick to Trinidad — and a date to leave Switzerland. Accusing Switzerland of breaching his human rights by ordering him back to Trinidad where he said his life was in danger, he decided to highlight his plight on the actual aircraft. “To highlight my plight, and in a moment of depression, I decided to end it all.

I went into the toilet of the aircraft with a bottle of tablets (ie anti-depressants), took a handful, and swallowed them. An airhostess had been maccoing me when I went into the toilet, so when I came out I snatched her neck. I had a scissors from my briefcase (which he held to her neck) and a dictaphone in my other hand. I said it was a bomb and held my finger over the button. I told her to walk to the pilot. Another hostess signalled the captain that something was wrong. He came out. He asked me what were my demands. I said ‘This is a hijack’. I said he must radio the ground crew and have representatives of the United Nations Human Rights Organisation on the ground when I land, to let them know I’m being forced to return to Trinidad, where I face political persecution. He said he’ll meet my demands but that he had a request of me. That I release the airhostess, which I did.  Right then I was thinking of running into the cockpit and pushing and pulling anything I could get my hands on.  But seeing all the young children on board and the 99 passengers, I decided to let it cool off. The pilot sat with me. I had said the dictaphone was a bomb. He got panicky. His co-pilot landed the plane roughly, making him shout ‘What the ….!’. After the plane landed at Gatwick I said to him ‘What’s in it for me?’. He replied: ‘You don’t need hostages, you’ve got $25 million worth of plane. He said: ‘You are going off with me’. I suspected something. I unbuttoned my trousers. Suddenly he made the biggest leap I’ve ever seen, off the plane. Then there were snipers all around me, so close I could even read the writing on their gun, ‘Heckler and Koch.’ There were 100 guns on me. My trousers came down so they could see I was not armed.” At the trial he was charged with hijacking, wounding the airhostess, and a bomb-hoax, but after a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to just the bomb hoax. “I got four years.  “I was sentenced on 10 November 2000. My sentence ended on 17 March 2003. I served 27 months, at seven different prisons. Afterwards I stayed in the UK to fight for political asylum.”

Initially he praised the jail amenities and describes life in a UK prison as “100 percent better than Trinidad”. But he added: “Yet still prison life is a Hell; I would not like to recommend it to the youths.” On the downside, he said he was once beaten by two guards for displaying a newspaper photo of terrorist Osama bin Laden. He shows a wound in his hand where he had fended off a blow from another prisoner who had tried to stab him with a pen, an incident he claims was instigated by the guards. After his sentence, he remained in detention while his UK asylum plea came up for hearing three times before a tribunal and court judges. He said he had been entitled to bail and that even though two members of the Pan African Unity had offered to stand his bail, they had been refused. “That’s the type of plot they use to wear you down. I got fed up, and returned to Trinidad. They flew me out on September 4. Two MI5 men escorted me from Winchester Prison to Gatwick Airport, and from Gatwick to Tobago”. Mason in fact had been no stranger to the UK having previously toured with steelbands. He now even shows off a photo of him in the UK with Tobago Crusoe, with whom he used to play in pubs on Sundays.

It may be surprising to know that over 60 percent of men in Trinidad and Tobago suffer from some form of erectile dysfunction…and are willing to talk about it with their doctors. This was revealed by a representative from the US based Pfizer Incorporated, makers of the drug Viagra, which made its debut some five years ago. Viagra has been described as a breakthrough oral treatment for erectile dysfunction that has been found to be effective and well tolerated in over 130 completed and ongoing clinical studies and has been approved by regulatory authorities in over 120 countries around the world, including Trinidad and Tobago. “Obviously the problem of erectile dysfunction (or ED) is bigger than people first thought,” said the Pfizer rep. “Based on surveys done in doctors offices in TT over the period 2001-2002, we found that most diabetic and hypertensive men were suffering from ED, but they are becoming more comfortable talking about the problem and seeking a solution. However, most didn’t know that they had a health problem to begin with, believing that it was mostly ‘mind over matter’.”

Prior to this TT preliminary study, a US survey (the Massachusetts Male Aging Study) assessed a group of men between the ages of 40-70 and found that 52 percent had some degree of ED. Therefore it stands to reason that our 60 percent tally shouldn’t come as a surprise… or should it? If we were to base these findings on lifestyle problems (such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and stress) it would be found that these can also contribute to ED, but according to a study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine, an average of one in seven men that were being treated for hypertension had it. Every three out of four diabetics suffers from ED, which can range from mild to severe in some instances. Also, men who were being treated for depression faced a double whammy, in that the very medication they take can bring about some form of the disease. “Let’s say we have a healthy 40-year-old man who becomes depressed, for example,” the Pfizer representative explained. “He will be put on a prescription for antidepressants, a few of which have the side effect of lowering the libido, and a doctor may prescribe Viagra to help him. Facts show that over nine out of ten men with depression can have ED. Then we have the case of another 40-year-old man who is hypertensive, taking his medication for that problem and is perfectly fine, but may have problems performing, because of the drugs.”

What is unclear is whether the drug Viagra is being abused in Trinidad and Tobago (due to the high figures of ED sufferers), as it can only be procured with a prescription. At $60 a pill (50mg and 100mg dosages) it’s possible that a few already healthy males may be getting some “under the counter” as it were. No figures were available to show just how much is spent on Viagra in this country. “The drug has been on the market now for about four or five years and we can only gauge by prescriptions just how sales are going. Remember, sexual performance is still a bit of a taboo subject with some men, although that is changing, albeit slowly. We’re seeing some progress with the awareness that ED is a real problem and not mind over matter. However we do need to make it very clear that Viagra is not an aphrodisiac. Viagra is a prescription medication indicated for the treatment of ED, and is only available from health care providers. Contrary to what they may believe, Viagra will do nothing for a healthy man physically… they will just have parted with 60 hard earned dollars. If they find an improvement, it means that there was a problem already there that needed fixing.” Rumored reports that Viagra will induce heart attacks were put to rest by the Pfizer rep, who stated that the drug will not induce a heart attack, but the danger lies in the exertion from the sexual act itself. All heart patients that use some form of nitrate drugs used to control chest pain (also known as angina), must not take Viagra. “This combination could cause the blood pressure to drop to an unsafe or life-threatening level,” said the Pfizer representative. “We cannot stress enough that a doctor has to recommend this drug, so be sure to ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity.”

Just after a year of buying a new maxi taxi and driving it herself, Claudette Paul, ended up in an accident which seriously damaged her maxi. She was a single parent and apart from taking care of her children she had to meet an installment of $6,147 each month to pay for the $255,835, maxi which she had bought in March 2001. After the accident which occurred on July 7, 2002, at the intersection of  Centenary Street and the Priority Bus Route, Tunapuna, Paul sued driver Vishnu Maharaj,  of the other vehicle, a pick up-van,  TAE 5586. Her writ of summons dated August 23, 2002, filed by attorney Yaseen Ahmed and Ken Sagar, advocate attorney, claimed damages for negligence, costs, interest and such further reliefs the court might deem fit.

On December 5, 2002, Justice Alan Mendonca ordered that the matter be deemed fit for early trial as a result of the severe financial strain that was put on Paul, a single mother of two children. The trial was heard on September 23, 2003 before Justice Gregory Smith. Paul testified that she was travelling into Port-of-Spain at about 2.30 pm, and was approaching the intersection which is controlled by a traffic light, when the pick-up van drove through the traffic light which was on red and collided with her vehicle, throwing it on the right side of a wall. She called one witness, Amir Ali, who was a passenger in her vehicle.  He had a similar story to tell the Court. Maharaj said that he came to a stop at the traffic light and waited for it to change to green and then proceeded to cross the Bus Route. It was while crossing, he explained, he  just heard a bang. He said he tried to control the vehicle but his pick-up ended up on the southern side of the wall. He said he did not observe the maxi before it hit him.

However, under cross-examination he said: “I was at the intersection when I saw the maxi, nothing was obstructing my view… I can see up to 1,000 feet up Centenary Street.” On September 23, 2003, Justice Smith found the evidence of Ali to be unbiased and true, and that there was no contributory negligence on the part of Paul. As a result, he gave judgement in Paul’s favour, ordering that Maharaj pay Paul’s costs of this action to be taxed in default of an agreement, and that damages be assessed before a Master in Chambers. Maharaj was defended by attorney Bolan Sharma instructed by the law firm of Dipnarine Rampersad & Co.  

WITH two days completed, the inquest hearing into the death of 11-year-old Akiel Chambers still does not tell us much. Pathologist Dr Neville Jankey, who performed the first autopsy, said on Friday that Akiel died by drowning. But the mystery question for Coroner Sherman Mc Nicolls is when and where did Akiel die. From the evidence so far, Akiel was discovered missing at 6 pm on May 23, 1998 at the birthday party at the home of Charles and Annelore James at 23 Balata Terrace, Haleland Park, Maraval. When Akiel’s aunt Valerie Pascall turned up to collect him at 6 pm, no one at the party knew where he was. His clothes were found on a chair outside the kitchen, while his shoes were nearby. Two policemen searched the pool after 11 pm. There was no body in the pool.

To everyone’s surprise, Akiel’s body was found at the bottom of the same pool hours later. Certainly, a mystery. The inquest continues tomorrow with key witnesses. Forensic pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes performed the second autopsy and the Coroner will anxiously await details of this report to find out what happened to Akiel. There will also be two members of the James’ family to give evidence — Annelore James, the hostess of the birthday party, and her daughter Carol. Sunday Newsday visited the James’ home on Tuesday and found that details of the description of the premises given by both the police and Pascall last week have changed after five years. The wall at the back of the premises as described by PC Dhanraj Maraj is no longer low. There is a high wall around the premises. The sliding door which Pascall opened to gain entry to the kitchen, is no longer there. The house has been renovated and two doors lead to the kitchen area, according to the house owner Charles James.

The James’ house is situated towards the dead end of Balata Terrace. So, the mystery deepens. How was someone able to leave the premises with Akiel Chambers in the afternoon and return hours later to throw his body in the pool without being seen or attracting the ferocious dogs in the neighborhood? Did Akiel ever leave Balata Trace that evening? In her evidence, Pascall said she left her Henry Street, Port-of-Spain home around 3 pm on May 23, 1998 to take Akiel to a birthday party for Carrie James, a classmate of her nephew. She hired a taxi because she did not know where the James’ residence was.  On arrival at Haleland Park, she saw a young lady standing near the entrance along with several children whom she recognised. Pascall did not get out of the taxi. She left Akiel at Haleland Park and returned to her home where she also carried on her dressmaking business. Pascall said she called the James’ home around 5 pm only to be told that the guests were about to stick the birthday cake. She eventually left her home around 5.30 pm and took a taxi straight to Haleland Park.

“I arrived there just before six o’clock. I told the taxi driver to wait for me as I was just going to pick up Akiel. I walked down the driveway and opened a sliding door to the kitchen. I saw some children and about three to four parents. I saw the postman Terrence Mc Clean who had a son attending Blackman’s School.” Pascall continued, “Mc Clean asked me what I was doing there as I had a daughter who went to Blackman’s. I told him that my nephew was attending the school and that I had come to pick him up. I saw Mrs James in the kitchen and I asked her for Akiel. Everybody was calling his name, but he didn’t appear.” Pascall said a search was carried out in the toy room and the computer room. Akiel was not found. Then, a search was carried out in the pool where about 15 children were bathing. She noticed there was no supervision and the children were bathing in the shallow end of the pool. At that time, parents were turning up to collect their children. There was a bigger search taking place. The pool was very clean as Pascall was able to see the bottom. Pascall said Akiel did not get permission to swim in the pool at the party. That was the condition he was allowed to attend, the aunt added. Pascall said the search went next door where children were also congregating. “Someone said that Akiel left in a car, and then shortly after, everybody was saying the same thing.” Pascall said Charles James returned home around 7 pm and went inside. He said nothing. The witness said she saw Akiel’s shoes near the door and his clothes on a chair. She placed the items in a bag, which she said, she still has at home.

A TRINIDADIAN wanted for the murder of State witness Clint Huggins is to be extradited from Canada soon. Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has ordered the extradition of Simon Raghoonanan who faces possible execution in Trinidad and Tobago, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. The sudden decision broke a two-year silence on a case with the potential to become a legal and political powder keg, since execution is mandatory for convicted murderers in Trinidad and Tobago. In a letter to Mr Raghoonanan’s lawyer, John Norris, Mr Cauchon said he has received diplomatic assurances that Mr Raghoonanan will not be executed if he is convicted. “In their note, the Trinidadian authorities state that if Mr Raghoonanan is extradited to Trinidad and Tobago to stand trial for the murder of Clint Huggins, the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago shall not seek or impose the death penalty for that charge,” Mr Cauchon wrote.

Mr Norris said in an interview that he was flabbergasted by Mr Cauchon’s decision, in view of the fact that the Trinidadian justice system requires murderers to be put to death. “The assurances they have given are directly contrary to the law of Trinidad,” he said. “The mandatory punishment for murder is death by hanging; there is no discretion involved and no distinctions made.” Mr Cauchon argued otherwise in his letter. “While you have suggested that Trinidad and Tobago cannot give such an assurance, I  see no basis to question their good faith in this regard,” he wrote. “I have concluded based on my examination of the Note that it sufficiently responds to Canada’s concerns.” Mr Raghoonanan, 41, was arrested last weekend and placed in jail. If extradited, Mr  Raghoonanan would become the first person sent to face possible execution since a 2001 Supreme Court ruling urged Canada to avoid doing so. Mr Raghoonanan was one of several men accused of pouncing on Clint Huggins on the Uriah Butler Highway, Mount Hope, on February 20, 1996, shooting him and shoving his body into his burning car. Trinidadian police believe Mr Huggins was eliminated to prevent him from testifying against reputed drug lord, Dole Chadee, who was convicted with eight other members of a gang for four murders at Williamsville in 1994. They were executed in June 1999.

A father of two teenagers who live in Trinidad, Mr Raghoonanan is a welder with no criminal record in either country. He has lived in Canada since 1988 and became a landed immigrant 10 years later. When she granted bail to Mr Raghoonanan earlier this year, an Ontario judge said that while the prosecution case against Mr Raghoonanan is not exactly frail, it does rank as “less than formidable.” She noted that the chief State witness in the prosecution — Swarsatee Maharaj — “has provided contradictory and piecemeal statements, and has been granted immunity from prosecution.” Mr Cauchon waved aside concerns about the evidence, saying in his letter that a Canadian extradition judge determined in 2001 that there was sufficient evidence to commit Mr Raghoonanan for extradition. “The weighing of the evidence and the determination of its reliability is for the trial judge in Trinidad and Tobago, which will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support a conviction under the laws of that country,” he wrote.

Mr Norris had a court date to argue that the delays in the  case were so unreasonable that it ought to be tossed out. At the 11th hour, the Justice Department finally made its move. Mr Norris said that even the police version of Mr  Raghoonanan’s role in the Huggins slaying relegates him to a very peripheral role. At worst, he said, his client’s behaviour on the night of the killing was that of someone who had no idea a homicide was about to take place, played no part in it, and appeared terrified. In a jailhouse interview with the Globe and Mail last year, Mr Raghoonanan said he was content to place his trust in the Canadian justice system. “The justice system in Trinidad is corrupt,” he said.

Immunologist Kelman Gomez-Adams condemned those who seek to blame the Government for the HIV/AIDS “crisis” in the country, while placing the responsibility for a change in sexual behaviour on the shoulders of every citizen. Gomez-Adams was speaking yesterday at a seminar entitled “AIDS: Responding to the Crisis,” hosted by the Curepe Pentecostal Church. The seminar was aimed at providing practical solutions, equipping affected persons with the necessary coping skills and promoting the need for individual and collective responsibility in lifestyles through the application of Biblical principles. The immunologist lauded the church for its efforts before sharing his 19 years of experience with the congregation. He offered a history of the discovery of and research into the virus both from an international and domestic perspective, while clarifying various misconceptions regarding the disease.

Gomez-Adams made a passionate appeal to parents to educate their children about sex and AIDS and “stop tip-toeing around the issue. Don’t blame the Government, they have been doing work in the area since 1984.” “It is possible for Government to legislate sexual activity, but will it effectively control sexual behaviour? No. The responsibility lies in modifying our behaviour and the behaviour of our young people,” added  Gomez-Adams. According to the National Surveillance Unit Public Health Laboratory, 2,475 Trinidad citizens  have died from the virus and more than 17,000 nationals (predominantly teenaged females) are currently living with the disease.