THE ANTILLES Episcopal Conference Youth Commission (AECYC) yesterday unveiled plans for a Youth Assembly to be held in Trinidad and Tobago from July 11 – 21.

Spokesman, Sheldon Narine, said it would the second assembly of its kind and participants would be coming from throughout the Caribbean, as well as from as far away as Belize, Bermuda and Canada. National Youth Coordinator for the Assembly Programme, Sr Rose Mary Carvalho, said the event would involve 3,000 young persons. In addition, it is expected to attract at least 10,000 participants to events at various locations throughout the country. The closing mass is expected to involve approximately 20,000 persons.

Chairperson for the AEC Assembly, Bishop Robert Rivas, said “young people needed hope” and this could be provided by the church and other such institutions. While the theme of this year’s assembly is “Do Whatever He Tells You…,” Rivas said the congregation would be left with the following question on the closing day: “What More Can I Do?” He added that it would be a time of learning for the participants, in addition to experiencing the joy of their faith and reaffirming their beliefs. “This is another example of regional integration and Caribbean unity,” he said.

Rivas acknowledged that people were moving away from the church, following recent allegations of sexual misconduct about priests, and this had affected the life of the church. However, he added, “in terms of restoring the image of the church, the church has continued to be faithful to Jesus Christ, and to be true to herself and the gospel.” Rivas said the church was trying to restore its image by reaching out to the youth, and the assembly was a positive thing. He admitted that the church was losing members, but claimed it was also gaining members from other institutions.

TRINIDADIAN Helen Dray-ton is one of three Vice-Presidents elected to the World Federation of the United Nations Association (WFUNA).

Drayton, President of the local arm of the world body, was elected at the 37th Plenary Assembly held in Barcelona, Spain, earlier this month. The other two Vice-Presidents are from Argentina and Bangladesh. Drayton and Grace Talma represented Trinidad and Tobago at the Plenary Assembly. The WFUNA is a peoples’ movement in support of the United Nations. It is the only non-governmental organisation devoted entirely to the support of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter.

A 40-year-old security guard was yesterday sentenced to 25 years imprisonment with hard labour for raping a schoolgirl at Caura River, El Dorado.

 Justice Melville Baird, presiding at the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court, described the act as “repugnant,” as he sentenced Edward Anderson, of William Road, Five Rivers, for rape, buggery and serious indecency to the 17-year-old girl on August 14, 1998. Anderson was found not guilty of indecent assault after the judge upheld a no case submission by defence attorney Mario Merritt. “Rape is repugnant irrespective of the age of the rapist or victim,” Justice Baird declared. He said the case was “singularly repugnant” since the prisoner “is a big mature man,” double the age of the victim. 

Baird added that although the defence attorney had asked the court not to consider Anderson’s previous convictions for robbery with violence, all the offences were “crimes of violence.” “A person who has a previous conviction is making a statement that he could not care less for society and its norms,” he said, adding that such a person had no respect for the law. State attorney Brambhanan Dubay presented evidence that around 1.45 pm on the day of the incident, the victim and her boyfriend were liming at Caura River, when Anderson appeared brandishing a cutlass. After searching the bags of the couple, Anderson ordered them to walk up a hill. The boyfriend eventually escaped leaving the victim alone with Anderson. Anderson took a gun from his knapsack and holding both the gun and the cutlass he led the victim into a nearby clearing. He told the girl to undress, and spread her towel on the ground near a tree. He then ordered her to lie on her chest on top of the towel.

Anderson undressed and proceeded to bugger the girl, forced her to perform oral sex on him and then raped her. Anderson then allowed the girl to leave through a nearby track. The victim made her way to a nearby house and was taken to a medical centre in St. Augustine before going to the Arouca Police Station to make a report. Anderson was arrested and charged on November 6, 1998, following investigations by officers of the Arouca and St. Joseph Police Stations. In his defence, Anderson claimed it was a case of mistaken identity. He claimed he was robbed and shot in the groin in December 1994, and has since been unable to achieve an erection. However, medical reports indicated that though Anderson had two pellet wounds to his scrotum he is not impotent. Baird sentenced Anderson to 25 years hard labour for rape, ten years hard labour for buggery and five years hard labour for serious indecency. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls  exceeded his jurisdiction when he ordered the prosecution  in the $19m airport authority fraud case, to provide a list (disclosure) of all  documents it  had in the case to the defence, said attorney Gilbert Peterson yesterday.

Peterson, who is representing the DPP in an application to the Court of Appeal to strike down Mc Nicolls’ order, said that the ordering of the list and its contents at this stage of the proceedings, could prejudice the prosecution and cast upon it an almost insurmountable burden. He warned that the defence challenge to the prosecution’s discharge of its duty of disclosure should be viewed in light of caution expressed by Justice Simon Brown.  
     
In rebuffing submissions made by defence attorneys that the Court of Appeal does not have power to hear appeals of an administrative nature in preliminary inquiries, Peterson argued that the  function of a magistrate must be subject to the supervision of a superior court. He said that other cases have not decided that the function of an inquiring magistrate is outside the reach of the supervisory powers of the Court of Appeal.

On another issue raised by defence attorneys Alan Alexander SC, Russell Martineau SC, Frank Solomon SC, Desmond Allum SC, Gillian Lucky, Fayard Hosein, Reginald Armorer, Devesh Maharaj and Rajiv Persad, Peterson said the definition of “inferior court” is wide enough to encompass a preliminary inquiry, and that there was nothing in the language used in the definition to restrict the application of section 36 of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act to summary trials. The court hearing the matter comprises Justice Margot Warner (President), Justice Rolston Nelson and Justice Stanley John.

After five days of argument the matter has come to an end and  the Court of Appeal will  give its judgement within two weeks. Before Mc Nicolls are former Minister of Finance Brian Kuei-Tung, former Minister of National Security Russell Huggins, businessman Ishwar Galbaransingh, Amrith Maharaj, Steve Ferguson, John Smith, Renee Pierre and Barbara Gomes. They are jointly charged with Maritime Fidelity Finance and Leasing Company, and Northern Construction Limited, with conspiring to defraud the AA of over $19 million.

A SMALL group of farmers from Ramgoolie Settlement in Curepe gathered opposite the Prime Minister’s White Hall Office yesterday to protest the destruction of approximately $200,000 — $300,000 worth of produce by  National Housing Authority (NHA) bulldozers.

Education and Research Officer of the National Foodcrop Association (NFA) Norris Deonarine said government had plans to build houses at the back of Ramgoolie Trace but the 30-acres of  lands had been occupied by some 25 farmers for over 30 odd years. Deonarine said: “No notice was given to the farmers to move from the lands or anything, and they just sent bulldozers to bulldoze farmers crops that were bearing.” He added that “in 2003, no government can’t be so oppressive in nature that just because they want to win an election in St Joseph or some marginal area … that they will come and remove farmers, unscrupulously, and just get rid of them to build houses.”

This claim was echoed by the other protesters as they shook their heads in unison, as Deonarine made this statement. Deonarine said the lands belonged to the Ministry of Agriculture, St Augustine Nurseries and “the people who came to do the bulldozing were from NHA, whose Ministry falls under Martin Joseph.” He claimed Joseph was “the so-called strategist in the PNM, as he was building houses in marginal areas. “We believe that farmers should be treated with respect and there are enough lands around where houses can be built,” he added.

Deonarine said the farmers were hoping to sensitise the country about the way that farmers were being treated by this administration. “We are above party politics,” he said. “When we produce food for the country, we don’t study if you are from a political party or what, as we are doing our patriotic duty.” Deonarine concluded that any country hoping to achieve developed country status has to be able to feed themselves, and maintain a level of economic independence. Deonarine said the farmers had contacted Agriculture Minister John Rahael about their problems but there had been no feedback.

TOCO residents came out in a fiery protest on Wednesday night after police shot and killed an unemployed man during a raid on an abandoned house. As the situation grew out of hand, with residents lighting bonfires and blocking the road, heavily armed police officers and soldiers arrived to restore order.

The residents began their protests shortly after Glenroy “Bro Bro” Elder was shot dead during a search on Wednesday night. According to reports, around 8.15 pm, Elder, 43, of Toco Main Road, L’Anse Noire, was liming with a friend inside an abandoned house off the Main Road, when a police jeep with the four officers stopped in front of two other men who were liming on the roadside. After searching the two men, the officers turned their attention to Elder and his friend, both of whom ran to the back of the house. One of the officers confronted Elder, who was hiding behind a fig tree and who reportedly attacked the officer.

The policeman drew his service firearm and shot Elder once in the left shoulder. They took the bleeding man to the Toco District Health Centre where he died while being treated. Residents who learnt of Elder’s shooting took to the street protesting what they deemed police brutality. One of the protesters claimed she was roughed up by the police and made to spend the night at the Toco Police Station before being released yesterday morning with no charges being laid against her. A team of senior police officers led by ACP (Crime) Oswyn Allard and Snr Supt Maurice Piggott arrived via helicopter around 9 am yesterday and spoke to several residents. They left at 11.30 am.

Elder, who was unmarried, had no children and used to do odd-jobs in the area. He was described by residents as a quiet person who kept to himself and whose only vice was to smoke marijuana. Evestine Thomas told Newsday she was startled out of her wits when the bullet which killed Elder, exited his body and penetrated a galvanise sheeting that was covering a window of her home. On hearing the gunshot, Thomas said, she ran and locked herself in her bedroom. An autopsy will be carried out on Elder’s body next Monday at the Forensic Sciences Centre. Within the past two weeks, residents in Laventille, Beetham and now Toco, have protested police brutality. The Laventille and Beetham protests followed joint army/police raids. Eastern Division head, Supt John Travajo, is spearheading investigations into the Elder slaying.

Director of Legal Aid and Advisory Authority (LAAA) Israel Khan SC, yesterday cleared the air over legal representation of murder accused Shawn Paris which prompted comments by Justice Herbert Volney, that southern lawyers not willing to represent Paris.

Khan said that already six legal aid attorneys have been assigned to Paris, but he has rejected all for one reason or another. Paris, Khan said, insisted that he wanted Desmond Allum SC and Rajiv Persad of Trinity Chambers, to do his case. But Khan said  he had spoken to Allum who has indicated that he would not be able to do the case.

Khan noted that had Justice Volney been aware of these facts he would not have ciriticised southern lawyers. When Paris appeared before Volney in the San Fernando Assizes, he tried to get an attorney to accept the brief to defend the accused, but no one accepted. This then prompted his comments. 

In defence of the south based attorneys, Khan said he has always received their fullest cooperation, even going the extra mile for the LAAA. Paris 35, of Gasparillo, is charged with the murder of Dr Chandra Naraynsingh on June 30, 1994. She was shot to death as she went to her car at Langmore Foundation, Palmyra, San Fernando.