THE BODY of State witness, Kevin Richards of Longdenville was found yesterday in a plastic bag, which also contained pieces of concrete, officers of the Central Division said. Identification of the body was revealed late yesterday via gold tooth in the mouth. Senior police officials earlier said they were working on the theory that it may be the body of Richards who was due to testify in a matter involving a man described by police as a “kidnap kingpin.” Richards was due to testify for the State in the kidnapping of Saran “Billy” Kissoondath, who was kidnapped on the evening of February 23 and released on March 13 on the Solomon Hochoy Highway.
Police sources said Richards went missing last weekend and had not been seen or heard since. Dental checks and fingerprints at Forensic Science Centre were done for a positive identification. The gruesome discovery was made around 4.30 pm on Thursday by Longdenville farmer Pooran Ram-lakhan, who according to the police, was going to his garden in Longdenville when he observed a plastic bag floating in a pond at Depot Road. The farmer contacted the police and a party of officers from the Central Division headed by Insps Gopiecharan and Ramlal, along with Sgts Sylvester and Ramlochan visited the scene and conducted investigations. When the bag was fished out and the body taken out of the plastic bag, police said the man’s hands were tied in front of his body with a piece of yellow cord.
District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Teelucksingh was also called in to view the body which he later ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre. Sgt Sylvester of the Chaguanas CID is continuing investigations. In an unrelated case, officers of the St Joseph CID are investigating a shooting incident in which Curepe resident Nicholas Mohammed, 24, was shot on the right leg. Police said around 8.30 pm, Mohammed was proceeding north along Evans Street, Curepe, when he was stopped by a man in a vehicle. The man came out of the vehicle and robbed Mohammed of $80 then shot him. No arrests had been made up to late evening and PC Williams of the St Joseph CID is continuing investigations.
A licenced firearm belonging to a prominent executive was stolen sometime between July 25 and August 11 but was not reported to the police until Thursday, police said. According to police reports, the businessman left the country on July 25 and returned to his Fairways, Maraval home where he discovered his .380 Taurus revolver and 12 rounds of .38 ammunition missing. He reportedly left the firearm in his bedroom. Police said the businessman did not indicate whether or not anything else was stolen. Insp Thorpe of the St Clair Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is investigating. He is now the second businessman to have had his firearm stolen between last Saturday and now.
Last Saturday evening, a Chaguanas businessman discovered his Glock 9mm pistol and 10 rounds of ammunition missing. He had parked his 2×4 pick-up vehicle at Grand Bazaar after which he reportedly left for a boat show. On his return around 3 pm, the Lange Park resident found the items missing. A briefcase and a laptop were also stolen, but his vehicle was still there. A report was made to the St Joseph Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and PC Anthony Remy is continuing investigations. Senior officers yesterday blamed the theft on carelessness and stated that this will spoil the chances of other people getting firearms user’s licence. Police have always advised that persons must secure their firearms at police stations when going abroad.
A man accused of stealing four mangoes, yesterday pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment by Port-of-Spain Magistrate Lianne Lee Kim. Henry Phillip, 43, a laid-off Government worker was charged with praedial larceny and entering enclosed premises. It was reported that around 12.30 am on Thursday, a resident of Golf Course Drive, Maraval, noticed a man jump over a wall surrounding her home, climb her mango tree, then pick the fruit. She alerted PC Marvin Peters, who was on patrol in the area. The man was immediately arrested.
Phillips sat trembling and fidgeting in the holding dock while the charges were read to him. Before he was called upon to plead, he began to speak but was sternly hushed by his mother who was seated in the public gallery. When called upon to plead he told the magistrate that he was going to be baptised on Monday and that he did not want to go to jail because he was constantly beaten by other prisoners. “Well your baptism will have to be put off, sir,” she replied. He was then sentenced to three months.
HIGH COURT Judge Herbert Volney yesterday expressed regret that the cat-o-nine tail is no longer used to punish persons convicted of rape since strokes with the cat-o-nine was an appropriate form of punishment for felons found guilty of rape. Justice Volney made this remark after sentencing Morvant resident Nicholas Leotaud to two ten-year sentences for kidnapping and raping a 22-year-old woman from his area in July 2000. In addition, Justice Volney ordered that Leotaud receive five strokes with the birch for the rape conviction. The judge ordered that the sentences run concurrently. In passing judgment, Justice Volney stated that while the crime itself was violent, the fact that Leotaud used violence against his victim to submit to his intentions made matters worse.
The facts presented by State attorney Cheron Raphael to the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court stated that on July 1, 2000 around 4.30 am, the victim was awaiting transportation to get to Morvant when she was approached by Leotaud. She did not know him at the time, however, he attempted to strike a conversation with her. She entered a taxi and he followed her into the vehicle. The driver asked them where they were stopping off and the woman informed him that she was stopping by the “Pepsi sign,” however Loetaud told the driver, “Don’t take her on, we are dropping Mon Repos.” Following Leotaud’s instructions, the driver passed the Pepsi sign and stopped at Mon Repos junction where Leotaud paid the fare and alighted the vehicle. He then held onto the woman’s hand and started to pull her out of the car. She held onto the driver’s seat and the front seat passenger started to curse saying that he was late for work.
The driver then told the woman to get out of the car, which she did. When she alighted the car, Leotaud picked her up and ran down a track to a house. At the house, he proceeded to beat and rape her. After a while, Leotaud fell asleep and the woman quietly changed her clothes and left the house. She went to the Morvant Police Station where she made a report. In passing sentence yesterday, the judge informed Leotaud that although he was not going to be using him as an example, he was going to impose a sentence that would deter him and others who may be thinking about committing similar offences.
“GOD is the ultimate judge!” These were the words from San Fernando Mayor Ian Atherly as he spoke to Newsday via telephone, hours after Acting Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington yesterday formally committed Mayor Atherly to stand trial in the High Court on a charge of ballot-box tampering which he allegedly committed during the General Election of 2002. Magistrate Wellington later placed the Mayor on $4,500 own bond. After signing the bond, Mayor Atherly, immaculately dressed as always, left the court followed by a group of journalists. However, he refused to say anything at that time. There is still the possibility that the matter would not reach the High Court since Magistrate Wellington also ordered that the case files be handed over to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson for further review.
Wellington explained to the court that his function was not so much a judicial one, but moreso, an administrative one. The magistrate added that there were inconsistencies in one particular piece of evidence, with one version of the evidence being that the Presiding Officer at the polling station gave permission to Mayor Atherly to check the ballot-box, while another version was that the Mayor never received such permission. Given this piece of evidentiary inconsistency and his (Magistrate Wellington) administrative capacity, he said the matter could not be brought to an end at the Magistrate Court level. Mayor Atherly is charged with committing the offence of ballot-box tampering last October 4 at the South Divisional Fire Headquarters, Mon Repos during voting of special electors.
Before the ruling was made yesterday, Atherly’s attorney Theodore Guerra SC contended that the case presented by the prosecution was “devoid of the qualities of conviction.” State Prosecutor Mauriciea Joseph strongly maintained that the decision of a prima facie case was already made hence the matter had to be advanced (to the next stage, ie, the High Court). On several occasions, both the prosecution and defence quoted from legal texts to support their case. Yesterday, the defence called one more witness to the stand, Attorney Michael Persadsingh, who in the 2002 General Election was an attorney attached to the PNM’s San Fernando West Constituency Office. After leaving court, Mayor Atherly was greeted by close friends and family members. He was then escorted to his nearby office at the Town Hall.
FED UP of being lectured by his older relative about his drinking habit, a 24-year-old Couva man reportedly plunged a fishing harpoon into the elder relative’s chest during the early morning hours yesterday. The victim subsequently died at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH). Sumarnath Santoo, 32, aka “Curtis,” languished in pain for over three hours before dying at the hospital, with the harpoon still deep inside his chest. At daybreak, the suspect walked into the Couva police station and confessed to police, that he had killed his brother. The murder occurred in a fishing village at Carli Bay, where Santoo lived with his brothers Steve, Sunil and Mesh. Another brother, Bobby, who lived next door, told Newsday it was around 1.45 am when one of his younger male relatives came home in a drunken stupor after liming.
Bobby, a former Caroni (1975) Ltd worker, said his brother Curtis, who was a strict follower of the Seventh Day Adventist faith, started quarrelling with the intoxicated relative, admonishing him about his drinking habit. “Normally when he (Curtis) talked to him (suspect name called) about the drinking, he (the suspect) would go and sleep,” Bobby said. As the argument ended, police were told, Curtis went to a hammock downstairs the small wooden family house to sleep, while the suspect went to bed. Later that morning, the suspect took up an 18-inch long lance, which was used in the family fishing trade, and plunged it into Curtis who was asleep in the hammock. Curtis was rushed to the Couva District Medical Centre where he was treated and transferred to the SFGH, where he died around 4.30 am.
Energy Minister Eric Williams yesterday said that Trinidad and Tobago stands to earn billions of dollars in additional tax revenue over the life span of the development plans for the Greater Angostura field. He was at the time speaking at BHP Billiton’s offices on the occasion of BHP’s award of a contract to build the Kariri-1 (K-1) deck for the platform at the Angostura Field Development. He said while the development plans for the Greater Angostura field call for capital expenditures that are budgeted to be around US $700 million, this country can earn billions of dollars as a result of the oil and gas discoveries off the east coast in the Greater Angostura field made by Bhp Billiton and its partners. Williams said one of the key challenges facing the Government was the equitable distribution of TT’s wealth to the benefit of the widest cross-section of its citizens. “In our view this must be done without the creation of uncontrolled inflation within the economic system and in a manner that will redound to the sustainable development of the country and its people.”
In this context, he said Government views the creation of local expertise in the energy sector which is transferable to other sectors of the economy, as critical to building local human resource capacity. In addition, he noted that Government will institute measures to ensure that a significant portion of capital expenditure for investment in the energy sector is channelled into the local economy. Williams also noted that the energy sector accounts for almost one quarter of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of TT, that is $9.7 billion of a total $42.6 billion between 1996 to 2001. “In comparing our GDP to our Gross National Product (GNP), there is a large and growing gap between the two, currently in the order of $2 billion.” He said this represents one of the key macro-economic challenges facing the Government. He added that one key strategy to narrow this gap is to ensure that as much of the capital expenditure “spent” on these types of projects physically takes place here in TT.
Williams added that as Government presses on with the implementation of strategies to ensure achievement of developed nation status for the country, they must continually measure their progress as they go along. “Today, our country is currently ranked in the middle-income strata with a GNP per capita of $7,262.” He said in order to close this gap, the Government has identified several strategies as a means of achieving this goal. Amongst these are increasing the productive capacity of local business for both domestic and export markets as well as increasing local enterprises’ share in projects with heavy capital inflows from foreign direct investment.
A FAMILY of eight was left homeless when fire destroyed their Point Fortin home last Thursday. Head of the household, Clyde Bholah, said the blaze started in the wooden gallery of his home at Egypt Village and within minutes, spread to the rest of the structure. Bholah said just after 7 pm, while he was watching the news, he heard his daughters shouting. “I hear the children bawl out ‘fire’ and they ran out of the house. I ran out too and I saw the gallery was on fire. Only that evening my wife had varnished the gallery so the fire spread quickly,” Bholah said.
He quickly reversed his $70,000 Mitsubishi pick-up out of the garage while his son Cyril, 24, managed to save his $40,000 Nissan B14 Sentra car. However, the family’s attempts to douse the flames with a bucket brigade proved futile, and the house was destroyed. “All the wardrobes, the deep freezer, a computer and everything just went down the drain. My 16-year-old son, Christopher, is supposed to go to school in two weeks and his books all gone through. We have to buy back his books now and start back from scratch,” the worried father said. Initial investigations pointed to electrical problems as the cause of the fire. Reports indicate that damage to the house and household items is over $75,000. Point Fortin police are continuing investigations.
Atlantic LNG last week paid its Land and Building taxes to the Point Fortin Borough Corporation. The TT$7.5 million cheque represents sums due in respect of the company’s three operating facilities for 2003. Land and Building Taxes for the LNG company alone are said to be almost four times the total of taxes paid by all other residents and corporate entities in the Borough, a release stated.
It is the largest bill of its kind for any industrial facility operating in Trinidad and Tobago, the statement added. Atlantic’s three trains occupy about 84 hectares of partially reclaimed land at Point Fortin. The company began operation of Train 1 in 1999 and a 2-train expansion project was completed in May of this year. The Point Fortin Corporation levies and collects its own taxes for assisting in meeting the expenses of the Borough. This substantial increase in revenue gives Point Fortin the highest tax income of all boroughs in the country, including the Port-of- Spain Corporation.
THE Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) is probing the abduction of a 19-year-old Venezuelan man who was snatched last Saturday in San Fernando. Police reports said a ransom of $20,000 was demanded for the return of Abilado Valdeo, who was kidnapped while liming with his countryman, Estaban Leonard Marshall in San Fernando.
Investigators indicated that Valdeo had recently come to Trinidad and was staying in Icacos where Marshall had been living for several years. Last Saturday, the two Venezuelans were at Library Corner, San Fernando, when a car pulled up and two men dragged them into the back seat of the vehicle. According to reports, the foreigners were beaten and Marshall was released several hours later in Morvant. The kidnappers drove off with Valdeo and later contacted Marshall with their ransom demand. Investigations are continuing.
