By KEN CHEE HING

A ST JAMES teenager became the nation’s latest murder victim on Wednesday night when he was ambushed by five men who battered and then stabbed him to death on Bournes Road.

While grieving relatives are still in the dark as to the reasons why 18-year-old Ashley Mathlin was murdered, police suspect his killing stemmed from a recent heated argument with a group of young men.

Mathlin, the 54th person murdered for the year so far, became the 13th murder victim within the past week.

According to police reports, at around 10.35 pm, Mathlin. a labourer of 44 Upper Bournes Road, was walking south along Bournes Road. As he walked past the Prosperity Bar, a green-striped vehicle pulled alongside him, from which five men quickly alighted.

The five started beating Mathlin mercilessly about his body. As he screamed and fell on the pavement, one of them stabbed him on the left side of his chest. He managed to get up and ran a short distance before collapsing.

The men reportedly continued kicking Mathlin while he lay helplessly and unmoving on the pavement. They later sped off in their vehicle while residents. who heard Mathlin’s screams, telephoned the police. When officers arrived on the scene, Mathlin was already dead. Visiting the scene were Supt Nadir Mohammed, Insp Narcis Cadette, Sgt Nandram Monilal, Sgt White and Woman Cpl Jackie. DMO Dr Michael Low Chew Tung arrived a short while later, viewed the body and ordered it removed to the Port-of-Spain Mortuary.

Up to late yesterday no arrests had been made.

An autopsy carried yesterday at the Forensic Sciences Centre revealed the youth died of massive shock and internal haemorrhaging consistent with the single stab to the left side of the chest.

The victim’s sister, Crystal Mathlin, told Newsday neither she nor her other relatives knew why Mathlin was beaten and stabbed.

“He was a cool person and we are all in a state of shock over this incident,” Crystal said.

Sgt Nandram Monilal of the St James CID is leading investigations.

FOUR CLASSROOMS at the Barrackpore Senior Secondary School were destroyed in a late night fire which started at around 10:05 pm Wednesday on the third floor of the Physics Science Block. There are six rooms on the third floor.

The rooms on the third floor which suffered the most damage were the General Purpose room and the Physics area.

According to reports, MTS security personnel on duty at the school saw smoke coming from the top of Block F. They immediately called the Fire Service.

Personnel from the Princes Town Fire Station arrived on the   scene to battle the blaze. A fire hydrant on the school compound made the job easier for the firemen.  Lab equipment, chairs, desks were among the items destroyed.

Officers were able to stop the fire from spreading to the lower floors which house the Chemistry and other labs. There was water damage to one of the classes on the third floor, as well as to rooms on the second and first floors.

Some Science School Based Assessment Assessments (SBA) assignments by Fifth Form students were damaged in the blaze.

With CXC examinations not too far away there was some concern that students might have had to re-do their assignments but school officials said most were still decipherable.

Investigators are working on the theory that the blaze may be attributed to an electrical problem. The building is said to be near 30 years old. Yesterday TTEC personnel visited the scene.

The Barrackpore Senior Secondary School accommodates some 1,500 students.

However, authorities said the fact that exams are in progress means that not everyone is required to attend classes daily. It is unlikely, therefore, that accommodation will become an immediate problem.

Even where there might be a shortage of space, Newsday was told, some space can be found by converting the school’s library. The cost of damage is estimated at $1.5 million and investigations are continuing. 

AN uneasy feeling has descended on residents of an upscale Maraval neighbourhood over the nightly delivery of headless chickens at the crossroads of Champs Elysees and Bergerac Road. The dead birds are cocks.

So concerned are residents that they have called in Fr Garfield Rochard, the parish priest of the Church of the Assumption which serves the area. At their request Fr Rochard visited the crossroads yesterday where two headless cocks, one black the other brown, lay very dead on opposite corners.

Fr Rochard told Newsday he responded to calls from his parishioners who fear that someone is either working some form of obeah, or up to mischief. He said he responded and was told that the cocks are being placed at the corners between 3 am and 4 am for the last three nights, and if it continues it would be reported to the police.

In the meantime no one is touching the birds, not even the garbage collectors although the smell of decay is increasing.

FORMER Transport Minister Jearlean John yesterday agreed that the Ministry of Works and Transport’s client representative, Peter Cateau, took action to save money on the Piarco Airport Project, but insisted that most of them were based on her directive. At the time John was being questioned by attorney for Cateau, Dawn Mohan.

She said one item on which Cateau caused savings to be realised was in the construction of two dog kennels. John agreed, after reading several documents, that Cateau authorised payment  of $49,000 for the kennels, half the projected cost of $84,000. The latter price was submitted by contractors.

She agreed that the bid price accepted by NIPDEC was not proper but added that if Cateau had been more diligent “three years before” 2002, there could have been more savings. John said at least he learnt something from her.

Regarding the taxi booth, John agreed she was upset at the projected cost of over $1 million and that Cateau had brought the document stating the cost of the item to her attention. However, she said, he never pointed out the cost.

Asked by Mohan if she was aware that Cateau was concerned about the high cost, John said no. She said she was glad he thought so recalling that she had created a scene when she saw the cost. Told that NIPDEC never responded to a letter from Cateau about his concerns, John said that didn’t surprise her.

John also agreed with Mohan, after perusing documents, that Cateau supported her in asking for bids for small works on the project and had insisted, based on her directives, that it be done at a reasonable cost.

On the issue of construction of the new fire station, when she was told by Mohan that Cateau had prepared a lengthy evaluation report seeking accountability, John again said she was glad Cateau was doing the job for which he was paid $30,00 a month.

Questioned about the interior/exterior works, and after reading several letters, John agreed with Mohan that it was not Cateau who had suggested that the work under CP7 be separated and put under CP 9.

Earlier in her questioning, Mohan subtly tried to demonstrate to John that Cateau had no staff and had a heavy workload. But John, in a firm, strong tone, immediately pointed out that Cateau could not have been overworked because he never complained, and if anything he was “underworked”. Mohan will continue her questioning of John when the inquiry resumes today.

Also at yesterday’s sitting, Tyrone Gopee re-appeared with his attorney Carol Gobin. However his matter was adjourned to April 15, after he was denied a request for copies of statements or memos from witness Robert Boodoosingh.

The Commission’s lead attorney Theodore Guerra, said the request, made in a letter dated March 25 by Gopee’s instructing attorney Nyree Alfonso, was improper and they were not entitled to such documents because the procedural rules of the inquiry did not permit it.

Chairman Clinton Bernard endorsed Guerra’s views and even denied Gobin the opportunity to respond. Gobin’s complaint that she was not being allowed to represent her client fairly was stopped by Bernard who advised her to take the issue to the High Court if she felt that way. Gobin hinted that she just might, saying that she was sure “we’ll” get there.

Gobin also sought clarification on whether Gopee was appearing on a summons as a subject or someone implicated, as well as to raise the issue of “highly prejudicial” statements made by Bernard and counsel for the Commission, but she was given no answers. Bernard instead told her to take what was written in the transcripts as the Bible. Gobin replied that the matter as recorded showed serious bias.

Bernard later reiterated to Gobin that she will be supplied with all the transcripts affecting Gopee and she will be given the opportunity to question persons who implicated him.

IN less than six months, Ronald John, brother of former United National Congress (UNC) Minister, Carlos John, has been kidnapped twice.

On Wednesday night John, a psychologist, was snatched from his Woodbrook home in what appeared to be a replay of the events of last October 2 when he was held at his home.

Then, police found him unharmed and tied up in a house in Cascade two days later. His kidnappers had demanded $2 million for his safe return.

In this latest kidnapping, however, John’s kidnappers are asking for $5 million. They had initially asked for $8 million when they made the first call which came hours after John had received flowers from a “secret admirer”.

Police said the flowers came from a Port-of-Spain store and after the flowers arrived someone contacted John on his cellphone asking him if he liked the flowers. The number that showed up was traced to a phone booth.

John is now the ninth person to be kidnapped for ransom for the year and lawmen have confirmed he is the first person to be kidnapped twice within the last seven years. Police could not say what happened before that time. Police believe that money is the motive but Carlos John said he suspected that the second kidnapping might be related to the fact that John is appearing as a police witness in the trial of five men who have been charged with his first kidnapping.

Two days ago John appeared at the Port-of-Spain Magistrate’s Court as one of three witnesses in the case in which five people have been charged with his first kidnapping. The case is due to be called again on April 1.

Preliminary reports are that John arrived on Wednesday night at his Petra Street home around 10pm in his Honda CRV vehicle. Mere moments after, police said a white Nissan B13 Sentra vehicle pulled alongside him.

Police said two armed men then jumped out of the vehicle and forced John into it. The kidnappers, suspected by the police to have been following John, then drove east along Ariapita Avenue.

However, police said a vehicle bearing the same registration number, was intercepted by army and police personnel in a roadblock on the Eastern Main Road, in the vicinity of Coconut Growers Association. A 29-year-old Morvant man was arrested, but police said he has given no information relative to the John kidnapping. He was in police custody up to late evening and the whereabouts of John were still unknown.

After the kidnapping, police said a neighbour contacted Carlos John, saying that his brother had been kidnapped. The UNC member confirmed that the neighbour called him and that the kidnapping has the entire John family upset and traumatised. “It’s a state of anxiety for everyone,” he said. “I am also worried about my parents, who are 88 and 89.”

John’s father, Carlton, said they were hoping and praying that the worst does not happen. He said his sons, Stanley (Appeal Court Judge) and Carlos were disturbed and worried and were trying their best to see what could happen. The elderly man also said that his children told him the kidnappers asked for “some millions”. Police sources also said John did not have bodyguards at the time he was snatched. However, John was spotted at an all-inclusive fete last month with three police officers at his side. Interviewed then, John said that the officers were there to protect him.

At his apartment yesterday, neighbours refused comment, but an elderly woman said it was the first time she had seen the gates to John’s apartment closed.

The AKS, headed by Sr Supt Gilbert Reyes and including ASP Henry Millington, along with members of the Western Division are continuing enquiries.

Agriculture Minister John Rahael stressed yesterday that there would be retrenchment at Caroni if Government did not get the necessary numbers to accept the Voluntary Separation Package.

Rahael announced that to date 4,000 workers had applied for VSEP. But Government needed at least another 4,000 to go in order to reach its target of having just 1,000 employees working at Caroni. (Caroni currently has some 9,000 workers).

He was speaking at the post Cabinet news conference at Whitehall. There is just one week to go to the April 3 deadline for acceptance of the VSEP package. After that, retrenchment would follow. The retrenchment conditions are not as generous as those offered under the VSEP.

Rahael said Government was determined to carry out its restructuring process on the company which is uneconomic and which loses $600 million a year.

It is understood that Government is planning to bring a motion on Caroni today in the Parliament.

Dealing with statements made by Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday that government’s decision to restructure Caroni was rooted in racism and discrimination, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said whenever Panday and his colleagues found themselves in political difficulty they resorted to the race card. He said this was why there was so much divisiveness in the society. 

He said no matter how hard Government tried to discuss the Caroni issue dispassionately, the UNC was “determined not to withdraw from that dangerous course of action (of using the race card)”.

The Prime Minister stated that enough had been said about the financial position of Caroni for everyone to accept that something had to be done.  He said many people were describing government’s actions (to restructure the debt-ridden state company) as long overdue.

He recalled that when the government in 1975 bought over the factory, people were saying even then that the days of sugar were numbered and that government should not have made this purchase. He said contrary to what the UNC was saying Government was not closing down the sugar industry.

Rahael quoted from several reports to prove that the UNC had planned to offer a VSEP to workers and that the ATSGWTU had accepted this. A June 30 1999 Report done for the UNC Government by Ernest and Young stated that the union “was not averse to a plan where the workers receive part of the VSEP in the form of land”.

MINUTES after being freed of drug charges which kept him in jail for the last three years, a Venezuelan businessman yesterday related a tale of injustices against foreigners incarcerated in Trinidad and Tobago’s prisons and vowed to stand up for their rights. He also promised to make up for precious time lost with his two-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, who was one month old when the prison gates closed behind him.

On December 18, 2000, Jose Longa Pedroza was arrested by police at a Diego Martin guest house and charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking after lawmen allegedly found 149 packets of cocaine rocks, weighing a total of 48 grammes in his apartment.

After an hour’s deliberation, a nine-member jury returned a verdict of not guilty in favour of Pedroza in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court.

As he emerged from the Hall of Justice, hand-in-hand with his smiling wife Caroline, Pedroza told Newsday of what he claimed were the grave injustices committed against persons jailed in this country’s prisons, especially foreigners.

“The calamities, the oppression they see in there. That’s not supposed to be so. Somebody has to stand up. The oppression that you have being 23 hours incarcerated, not being guilty of any offence. That is wrong. At least in the Golden Grove, you could say that you have more comfort but in town..nastiness!” he declared.

Pedroza said he spent eight months at the Port-of-Spain State Prison and the remainder of his incarceration at the Golden Grove Maximum Security Prison in Arouca.

“I go stand up for my rights and for the rights of many people, especially foreigners. Who come in here, even as an illegal entry, being charged as a criminal and being brought to a big jail where they have criminals all over the place.

“It is only in Trinidad and Tobago that they are treating foreigners in the manner that you do here and that, somebody has to stop that. The higher authorities have to know what is going around in the Prison Service of Trinidad and Tobago.

“A Guyanese came inside for a case, he finished his case nine months ago. He is waiting nine months for deportation. That’s unfair. Every Guyanese coming here and all the Venezuelans coming here illegal. They are staying two three months before being deported to their country. That is unfair. Only in Trinidad that ever happens. I will stand up for them,” Pedroza declared and walked off with his wife, eager to return to their Princes Town home.

His attorney Ulric Skeritt said: “The jury has done what they have done and they have sent a clear message to the police officers they are not in fact going to accept police officers doing work and interfering with other people’s property. They (police) have in fact taken an oath to do justice and they should do that.”

The case was presided over by Justice Malcolm Holdip while attorney Nalini Singh prosecuted for the State.

More than 3,800 workers at Caroni (1975) Limited have applied for the enhanced VSEP packages offered by the State-owned company.

In an interview yesterday, Caroni’s Human Resources Manager, Selwyn Bhajan, said the figure represented both daily and monthly paid employees from all sectors of the company. He said workers submitting completed application forms had steadily increased as the April 3 deadline approached, and the company would begin distributing acceptance letters by April 11.

Asked about an advertisement appearing in the daily newspapers stating that some 1,000 persons would be required by a restructured Caroni, Bhajan said the number was based on the specific manpower needs of the company to produce approximately 75,000 tonnes of cane per year.

He declined to say how vacancies would be filled, indicating only that the decision on who would remain with the company would be based on a revision of those persons accepting VSEP packages.

Bhajan also admitted that the 2003 crop was “a little behind schedule” with periodic shut-downs affecting sugar production at both the Usine Ste Madeleine and Brechin Castle factories.

And asked about the one-week ultimatum given by cane farmers over mounds of rotting canes in scale yards and at factories, Bhajan said the issue was being addressed by Caroni’s CEO, William Washington, and members of the Operations Department.

Efforts to contact Washington proved futile as he was said to be at a meeting in Port-of-Spain.

A FEMALE CEPEP worker got the shock of her life yesterday morning when she stumbled upon a human skeleton while clearing bushes in La Horquetta.

Police who visited the scene could not determine the sex of the victim and were also uncertain if the person died as a result of foul play. Investigators are calling on the public to assist them in identifying the remains so an autopsy could be carried out to ascertain cause of death. According to police reports, at around 9.30 am the CEPEP worker was clearing some bushes off Inshan Ali Avenue, Phase Two, La Horquetta, when she saw what looked like bones jutting through some bushes. When she checked further, she discovered the complete and intact skeletal remains of a human.

A report was made to the La Horquetta police and officers led by ASP Wesley Moore and including Insp Peter Grant, Insp Philbert Pierre and Sgt Johnnie Abraham (Homicide Bureau) visited the scene.

DMO Dr Vinod Mahabir estimated that the corpse may have been there for more than six months. He ordered the remains removed to the Port-of-Spain Mortuary.

Northern Division police are planning to check their missing persons list to see if they can come up with a match. The corpse was clad only in a faded short pants, leading police to speculate that it might be that of a man. Insp Pierre is investigating.

RETIRED school teacher Ralphy Ramcharan died from multiple chop wounds, a post mortem performed yesterday revealed.

Police had initially believed the former Mathematics teacher was beaten to death because of a wheel spanner seized where Ramcharan’s body was found in a river south of the Maritime Plaza Roundabout, Barataria.

The naked body of Ramcharan, 41, of Debe Juntion, Penal, was found Wednesday morning by three gardeners who were going to attend to their crops at Black Dirt Trace. His hands were tied in front of his body and his feet were bound at the knees and ankles.  There were lacerations to his arms and forearms and a huge gash to the back of his head.

Relatives told police that Ramcharan had left home Tuesday to go and tutor a student in the Curepe area.  He had not been seen since and a missing person report was lodged at the San Fernando CID.

Ramcharan’s body was later identified by his wife, Liwaite and brother, Danny.  No arrests had been made up to late evening and Cpl Francis Vidale of the Barataria/EL Socorro Police Station is continuing enquiries.