The Government has won its bid to appoint a pair of provisional liquidators for CL Financial (CLF).

Delivering an oral judgement at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, last evening, Appellate Judges Peter Rajkumar, Charmaine Pemberton and Andre Des Vignes reversed the decision of High Court Judge Kevin Ramcharan, who had rejected the Government’s application last week.

As part of its ruling, the court allowed the Government’s lawyers and those for a group of shareholders opposed to the move to wind up the company, to determine the remit of the liquidators.

The liquidators selected by the Government are Hugh Dickson and Marcus Wide of international accounting firm Grant Thornton.

In their discussions, head of the State’s legal team Deborah Peake, SC, explained that the provisional liquidators will have less power than traditional liquidators, as they were merely hired to assess the company’s assets and ensure they are not disposed of pending the determination of the petition to wind up the company.

If successful with the petition, which is also before Ramcharan, the Government will then be able to appoint traditional liquidators who would seek to sell the company’s assets in order to repay Government its remaining $15 billion debt and the debts owed to other creditors. Under the agreement, almost all of the decisions of the provisional liquidators will have to be approved by the court.

At the start of yesterday’s hearing, the shareholders sought to withdraw their move to retake control of the company’s board, which was the catalyst for the Government’s action in making the winding up petition.

Their attorney, John Jeremie, SC, said his clients were willing to postpone the vote on appointing Carlton Reis and Kirk Carpenter as two additional board members, which was scheduled to take place at an extraordinary meeting of shareholders yesterday afternoon. (See page A5)

Jeremie said: “There is no immediate or imminent threat of the composition of the board changing over the next three months, therefore there is no need for the court to grant the order for provisional liquidators to be appointed. The Government is and will remain in control until at least the end of October.”

In response, Peake said the reversal in position did not affect Government’s plan to recoup its debt, as the move by the shareholders to retake control of the board was not its sole concern in making its decision to have the company wound up.

“We did not rush to have the company wound up. We came to court when it became clear that the company does not have the assets to pay its debt,” Peake said.

In its decision, the Appeal Court agreed with Ramcharan’s assessment over the company’s insolvency, but said he made an error when determining the need for the provisional liquidators.

Rajkumar said Ramcharan was mistaken when he said the State had to prove the shareholders would dispose of assets if they had gone through with their plans. The Appeal Court instead agreed with Peake, who had claimed the company’s assets were being disposed of in its normal day-to-day operations because it was making continuous losses, including a deficit of $3.5 million in April.

“An insolvent company is not supposed to be trading. This company is not temporarily insolvent, this company is chronically insolvent. Since 2009 the Government has been in rescue mode to see what can be done to recover the debt without liquidation, but there comes a time when enough is enough,” Peake said.

In their submissions, Jeremie and Lynette Maharaj, SC, said their clients were concerned about the appointment of the liquidators as it would be catastrophic for the company.

“I understand that the Government has a concern how its debt is to be repaid. These shareholders want to repay the Government but they are not getting the co-operation of the Government. Once you put the liquidators in it is going to be counter-effective at the end of the day,” Maharaj said.

She also questioned the timing of the Government’s move, as she said it had been in effective control of the company over the past eight years.

The winding up petition came up for hearing before Ramcharan minutes before the appeal was due to commence yesterday morning.

In a brief hearing before Ramcharan, the shareholders’ lawyers indicated that they had filed their application to represent the company in the petition. Ramcharan adjourned the hearing until this morning.

Ravi Heffes-Doon is also representing the Government, while Maharaj’s husband, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, is appearing alongside her and Jeremie for the shareholders, who together hold over 60 per cent stake in the company.

The Government made the application and a corresponding winding up petition for the company earlier this month, after the shareholders signalled their intention to change the composition of the board, which was government-controlled since Clico’s bailout.

As a condition of the bailout, CLF, in its shareholder’s agreement with the government, had agreed to honour its subsidiary’s debt and allow government to select four members, including the chairman, to its seven-member board. The agreement, which was renewed 17 times since being first signed, expired in August last year and the shareholders refused to agree to a new deal.

The shareholders’ refusal was reportedly based on the failure of the Ministry of Finance to consider a proposal from independent auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which suggested that they be given control of the company and allowed to renegotiate the repayment arrangement for the $15 billion still owed to the Government.

They are claiming that the company’s debt to the Government is inflated and the company is not insolvent, as is required for winding up proceedings.

While the shareholders yesterday agreed to postpone their bid to take over the company’s board to October, it may now be rendered unnecessary as the company and its board would cease to exist once the liquidation process is initiated in the event that the winding up petition before Ramcharan is successful.

A High Court Judge has deferred the hearing for an injunction to reinstate the former managing director of CL Financial (CLF) Marlon Holder.

In the midst on ongoing legal battles between the Government and the company’s shareholders over proposed moves to wind-up the insolvent company, Holder yesterday filed a lawsuit challenging his dismissal on June 28 and seeking an injunction to reverse it.

But when the case came up for hearing before Justice Frank Seepersad in the Port-of-Spain High Court, Seepersad said he needed to hear submissions from the company’s lawyers, who asked for an adjournment as they were only served with the lawsuit hours before.

Seepersad also said the injunction was not urgent, as Holder made the application almost a month after he was fired. Seepersad said the wait was also necessary as his decision on the issue would be affected by the outcome of the Government’s appeal over the appointment of two provisional liquidators for the company later that evening. The Government eventually won the appeal.

While Seepersad said he wished to deal with the case expediently, he said he would be only able to accommodate a trial when the 2017/2018 law terms opens in mid-September as he would be abroad next month.

Holder’s lawyer, Theresa Hadad and CLF’s lawyer Elton Prescott, SC, agreed, indicating they were also travelling abroad during the Judiciary’s vacation period.

At Hadad’s request, Prescott gave an undertaking that the company would not seek to replace Holder pending the final determination of the case. Prescott also admitted that although Holder’s role as a director on all CLF subsidiary boards ceased upon the termination of his contract, he was still an Angostura board member.

In response, Hadad raised the fact that her client had been denied access to Angostura’s company information since being fired and could not perform his duties, including appearing at a board meeting on Thursday. Prescott assured Hadad that he would be be provided with the information in time of the meeting.

Central to Holder’s case is the decision taken by four government-selected CLF board members - Rolph Balgobin (chairman), Kirby Anthony Hosang, Terrence Bharath and Ingrid Lashley - to terminate his contract last month.

In his affidavit filed in support of his claim, Holder, who held the post since 2010, said he was informed of the decision after three shareholder-selected directors, Albert Tom Yew, Frederick Gilkes and Trevor Marshall, had left the board meeting on June 28. Holder is claiming that while a quorum of four board members is allowed, the decision on his termination rests with the shareholders according to the company’s by-laws.

During Hadad’s preliminary submissions, Seepersad intervened to say that in addition to the company’s internal constitution, he would also have to consider the relationship between CLF and the Government following the $23 billion bail-out of its subsidiary Clico in 2009.

The ruling of the Appeal Court to appoint provisional liquidators for CL Financial can have unintended ramifications for this country’s economy, chairman of the CLICO Policyholders Group Peter Permell said last evening.

Contacted after the ruling, Permell said while the court’s decision was respected, it meant “bad news for the taxpayers, shareholders and the economy.”

“While we respect the ruling of the court we do not agree with it and we believe there is going to be some fall out in terms of untended consequences. Perception is also going to play a part in the whole scheme of things, but we will only know the impact of the ruling when the public digests it, especially the investment community,” Permell added, noting filing an appeal was also always an option.

The ruling, which came last night, left many shareholders who were present in the court disappointed and surprised.

“I don’t expect a large conglomerate like CL Financial simply taking the ruling just like that. The best thing to do would be to appeal the court’s decision,” one shareholder said.

Earlier yesterday, the much anticipated special general meeting of CL Financial, at which shareholders wanted to table proposals to have two additional members added to the board, was put off to October at the court’s request earlier in the day. Several shareholders met at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain for just under an hour before taking the decision.

Permell, who spoke to the media about the ramifications of appointing a provisional liquidator, said, “The question of appointing a provisional liquidator would almost be like an indelible stain on the company and once you appoint a provisional liquidator that sends all sorts of signals to the financial community and the economy of T&T.

“This is not a parlour or a grocery around the corner. This is a multi-billion dollar company that you are seeking to appoint a provisional liquidator in the first instance and then a winding up order to appoint a full fledged liquidator to have the company wound up, so these are matters you have to take very seriously.”

An employee from the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) and his father, a retiree who also worked at the hospital, were both ambushed and killed by gunmen in Laventille yesterday, while responding to a call of an accident along Picton Road involving one of their vehicles.

Fitzroy Daniel, 65, and his son Jabari, 25, were taken to the PoSGH after the attack but Daniel was pronounced dead on arrival. Jabari died while undergoing emergency surgery hours later. Both father and son lived at Boxhill Trace, Laventille.

The men were shot in the back of their heads and torsos around 12.30 pm by attackers using high-powered rifles, according to investigating officers.

The T&T Guardian was told that Jabari, who works at the PoSGH’s Engineering Department, Refrigeration, reported for duty yesterday when at shortly before noon he received a phone call from a relative informing him that one of his vehicles was involved in an accident with two other cars and a truck along Picton Road near Dan Kelly.

A friend close to the family, who wished not to be identified, said Jabari left in his red station wagon to get his father before going to the area of the accident.

“From what we hear, is that by the time they got there the fellas around there were very rowdy and things began to heat up. By then, it look like when Jabari and his dad decided to leave the scene to go back up the hill that the gunman run up on them from where the father sat in the passenger seat and opened fire,” the close friend said.

It is believed Jabari, on hearing the gunshots, stopped the car, got out and attempted to run away, but the gunman chased after him and shot him several times in the head and left side of the back. The gunman then ran off.

Police are yet to determine a motive for the killing, as although it may be linked to the accident they are not ruling out that it may have been a hit on Jabari.

At the PoSGH yesterday, Jabari’s co-workers described him as a “quiet and hard working” individual.

“All of us were very shocked to hear what happened. We knew Fitzroy very well and he retired about five years ago and just recently, I saw him and I asked him if he wasn’t ageing,” one of Jabari’s co-workers said.

“Jabari was a real nice and quiet person who was always in work. Just last week he used his other car (the blue one) to come to work and this morning (yesterday) he came with the red one.”

Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident, four people were shot in San Juan just after midnight yesterday while liming at a lane off Shende Street, Sunshine Avenue.

One of the victims, identified as Kareem Syndey, 29, was pronounced dead at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope. The others, Ronnie Seecharan, Cornelius Samuel and Davien Garth, remain warded at hospital in critical conditions.

Police said the group of men were liming when they were ambushed by gunmen at about 12.20 am. A motive is yet to be determined in that shooting incident.

The murder toll now stands at 279 for the year so far.

Investigations are continuing into both incidents.

Brennon Rampersad was freed yesterday of the 2007 charge of causing the death of his friend and neighbour, Craig Harripersad.

Harripersad, 15 was a passenger in a  white Sunny sedan driven by Rampersad, then 18, on May 12, 2007 when Rampersad lost control of the vehicle and ploughed into a truck driven by Birsingh Gadraj.

Harripersad died while receiving treatment at hospital the following day.

The trial against Rampersad, who is now a fire officer attached to the Siparia Fire Station, began on July 13 before Justice Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo in the San Fernando High Court.

Yesterday, the jury deliberated for one hour and 40 minutes before returning with a not-guilty verdict. Attorneys Kevin Ratiram and Chris Ramlal represented Rampersad, now 28, while state attorneys Shabana Shah and Norma Peters led the prosecution.

During the trial, PC Roger Fortune testified that he was a passenger in a police vehicle driving along the SS Erin Road when he witnessed a white Sunny car coming in the opposite direction at a fast speed.

Fortune said he alerted the driver of the police vehicle, Sgt Harry and Harry pulled their police vehicle to the extreme left of the roadway and stopped. He said the Sunny passed them at a high speed and then veered into their lane behind them, colliding with a truck that was also behind them. Fortune said he contacted the Siparia Police Station, the Fire Station and an ambulance. 

Also testifying for the prosecution, retired Cpl Khalif Karim said he was received a report on the day of the accident and when he went on the scene, he observed the front of the white Sunny car pinned under the front of the truck. He said he saw four occupants in the car including Rampersad who was in the driver’s seat.

He said after fire officers used the Jaws of Life to free the occupants and Rampersad came out of the vehicle, he asked him how the accident had happened. Karim testified that Rampersad told him he came around the corner, lost control of his vehicle and collided with the truck.

But defence witness, Rampersad’s uncle Avelino Montano testified that on the day of the accident, he received a message and went to the scene with his cousin, Steve. He said when he got there, he saw Rampersad in the drivers seat and the steering wheel of the car was pinned against him. The car’s windshield had been shattered in the accident.

He said he and Steve climbed onto the car’s bonnet and through the space where the windshield would have been, they pulled the steering up and away from Rampersad. Montano said the steering budged a small distance and Rampersad began to cough up blood. He said he then lifted Rampersad out of the car where he was placed on a stretcher and taken away by ambulance.

Montano said at no time did Rampersad ever speak to anyone at the scene as he appeared to be unconscious.

Last Wednesday, Rampersad testified on his own behalf, telling the jury he was driving on the day when he came to the corner. He said he slowed to about 30 miles per hour and then began accelerating again. He said as he turned the corner, he saw a police van about six feet in front of him in his lane coming towards him.

He said he also saw a truck on the opposite lane. He said the police van appeared closer than the truck and he panicked and instinctively pulled to the left to avoid colliding with the police vehicle.

He testified that he felt a vibration on his steering wheel and saw he was headed to a ditch on the side of the road. He then pulled to the right to try to get the car back on the road. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital.

He said due to injuries sustained in the accident, he was unable to walk until about five months later. He said he couldn’t immediately remember the accident and around mid-August 2007, he began getting flashbacks as to how the accident happened.

With crime in T&T almost a part of people’s daily lives, it was business as usual for pedestrians and motorists passing along the Southern Main Road, Rousillac, Monday, as 50-year-old Krishna Girdharrysingh was being hacked with a cutlass by a man described as a menace in the community. Nobody lifted a finger to help the man as he was being attacked.

However, Girdharrysingh’s family eventually breathed a sigh of relief after doctors at the San Fernando General Hospital wheeled him out of the Intensive Care Unit and admitted him to a ward, after working for hours to save his life. His attacker’s blade had left him with a gaping chop on his head that splintered his skull, a fractured hand and deep cuts to his shoulders and knees.

Police said Girdharrysingh, a driver on a CEPEP project, had just picked up chicken at Triple K’s Zesty Roti and Bar-b-que, in an area popularly known as “Pepper Sauce Hill,” around 3.30 pm when the incident happened. Traffic was bustling along the main road when the suspect was seen walking with the cutlass in his hand. CCTV footage from a neighbouring business showed Gidharrysingh’s back was turned from the suspect and as he opened his door and sat in the pick-up, his attacker pounced on him with a flurry of chops.

Girdharrysingh tried to run out of the pick-up but he was floored by the constant blows to his body. Within the 38 seconds of the attack, five vehicles passed, three of them slowing down but none stopping to help. Two men could also be seen in the video watching as the drama unfolded.

Gidharrysingh was left at the road bleeding before Debbie Kenhigh, who works at the business, ran out with ice and towels to stem the bleeding. Eventually, his employer picked him up and took him to the hospital.

Kenhigh told the T&T Guardian yesterday that she immediately contacted the police and although she could have been attacked as well, she needed to help her friend.

“There were plenty people who could have helped. If I am a woman and I could have gone out there, other people could have done something as well. It was not that I was not afraid, I just was not thinking about anything else but him at the time because he was just there on the roadside and could not move. I told him that I brought ice and all he was asking was if it would burn. He was in pain,” Kenhigh said.

Responding to the attack, La Brea police, including PC Maharaj, PC Dyer and PC Mendoza, went to a bushy area in Judah Gardens where they found the 27-year-old suspect. He attempted to run, but the officers held him and found the weapon nearby. Cpl Thompson and PC Maharaj are continuing investigations.

Residents fearful

Girdharrysingh’s father, Roy Ramsoomair, 74, said the attack was unprovoked, but surmised it might have been caused by a dispute over State lands. At his home yesterday, a troubled Ramsoomair said the suspect lived in another area in Rousillac and after he was thrown out by his step father, he built up a shack in the bush.

Ramsoomair said he had been gardening in that area for 50 years and one day when he went to reap crops, the suspect confronted him about being on the land.

“He told me to get off the land, all of this is his. For the past 50 years I’ve been planting on this land, which belongs to the government. This was just last year and the boy threatened me, saying he would chop me and that he had a gun and he would shoot me. At my age, I alone can’t go onto the land so I take my two sons and nephew with me to get stuff and bring home to cook,” Ramsoomair said.

He said he made several reports to police and on one occasion two officers responded, but they got an emergency call and had to leave before they could speak to the suspect. The officers never returned. He said if they had intervened back then, maybe yesterday’s attack would not have occurred.

Several neighbours said they were fearful of the suspect as he had attacked others before. On one occasion, they said he struck a man on his head with a hammer. They said he faced a charge, but returned to the community after some time.

For his part in the robbery of a passenger in his vehicle in 2016, Edmund Sewlal was sentenced yesterday to six years hard labour.

His co-accused, Felix Bhola, was sentenced to four years hard labour.

Both men were on trial for the robbery with aggravation of a 54-year-old man on July 12, 2016.

They were both found guilty before Magistrate Cheryl Ann Antoine in the San Fernando First Magistrates Court yesterday.

The trial began on July 3, 2017 before Antoine.

Attorney Ainsley Lucky appeared on behalf of Bhola, 39 while Sewlal, who is 49, was unrepresented. Sewlal, of Pascal Road, Gasparillo, and Bhola of Tabaquite were charged by PC Lyndon Ramcharan of the Gasparillo Police Station.

During the trial, the court heard that on around 10.30 pm July 12, 2016, Sewlal was driving a Mazda hatchback vehicle in which Bhola was a back seat passenger and a third unidentified man was the front seat passenger.

Under the pretense that he was working ‘PH’ taxi, Sewlal picked up the victim along the Gasparillo Link Road. The victim asked to be taken to Marabella but instead, on reaching close to Reform Junction, Sewlal pulled to the left side of the road and stopped. 

The court heard that the man sitting in the front seat pulled out a cutlass and told the victim “Pass everything you have.”

The victim handed over $260 in cash, a Nokia cell phone valued $300, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

The front seat passenger then instructed the man to get out of the car, while Sewlal also came out of the vehicle and opened the trunk. He told the court that he opened the trunk so the victim would not see the vehicle’s number plate as he drove off.

Both Sewlal and Bhola had claimed they had no part to play in the robbery and it was done solely by the unidentified third person.

However, in handing down the sentence, Antoine told Sewlal that being the driver of the vehicle, he had some control of the environment.

Sewlal, a father of three has ten previous convictions of a similar nature which were taken into consideration for sentencing. Bhola, however, had no convictions or pending matters before the court.

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan yesterday admitted that the delay in Monday’s maiden voyage of the Cabo Star from Port-of-Spain to Tobago was as a result of a manpower issue by the Port Authority of T&T.

Also, the vessel which should have taken five hours to sail the sea bridge, arrived at the Tobago port three hours late.

The vessel was called into service earlier than scheduled after the Atlantic Provider experienced mechanical problems last Friday.

Yesterday, president of the Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce Demi John Cruickshank said the vessel arrived in Tobago at 2.20 am.

Trucks on board the boat were offloaded and reloaded at 5.20 am.

“We were up whole night. We did not get any sleep. But I am not too sure what happened after that because the vessel was not in the harbour and it left at 10.30 this morning. So I don’t know what happened between the loading of the trucks and when the boat departed,” Cruickshank said.

In going forward, Cruickshank said Patt would have to sort out these hiccups.

“I know they (the Port Authority) had some issues with the clearance of the paper work for the boat to sail yesterday. That is why the boat left Port-of-Spain late last night (Monday) which was around 6.30 pm. In terms of why it was delayed in Tobago this morning I am not sure.”

Cruickshank said they expected to face teething problems with the newest cargo vessel.

“The same thing happened with the Super Fast Galicia when it came here. The first week we had a lot of trials and errors. But things worked out in a few days,” Cruickshank said.

Cruickshank said he anticipated that withing a week, the vessel would operate smoothly.

Sinanan admitted that the boat sailed late, as he threw the blame on the shoulders of Patt.

“You would expect that after the first and second voyage you would may have some challenges. I understand that the delay was as result of the manpower at the port and not the vessel. I don’t think it was anything major. It was the first voyage and we left Trinidad late. But I think everybody is happy with the capacity. 103 trucks went up with goods.”

The Cabo Star can accommodate 130 trucks.

Calls to the authority’s chairman, Alison Lewis, went unanswered yesterday.

Deputy chief executive officer of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) Col Dave Williams says there is need for an effective Incident Command System.

Williams said that during a brief address to yesterday’s disaster management training workshop for local government representatives. It was held in collaboration with PODS Emergency Management Consultancy and Solutions.

Port-of-Spain mayor Joel Martinez and Arima mayor Lisa Morris-Julian were among those who attended the event held at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.

Local government representatives are usually among the first responders for any disaster.

Williams told them that while their response was very important it was very important “you ensure that a management system exists to manage those responses you make.”

He said that in the wake of major flooding in Diego Martin a few years ago.

He said the management system that was in place then had two major problems. He said the first was that people did not know about it and the second was that “it was not appropriate to manage what was required.”

Williams said because of that “five years later I am being asked to pay a bill for more than $1 million for services rendered that we can’t verify.”

Also speaking at the event was managing director of PODS Emergency Management Consultancy & Solutions, Stacy-Ann Pi Osoria.

She said ICS was a standardised all hazards incident management concept used by single or multiple agencies to manage and control from the smallest incidents to the largest catastrophes.

Dabreau said whether one was a minister, permanent secretary, mayor, CEO, chairman or councillor “you all need to be aware of how ICS can work as it will help you take full control of any emergency.”

She told local government representatives that they can be assured that “an institutionalised ICS in your region will help you to cope with incidents of any kind or complexity.”

She said the system allows “personnel from a wide variety of agencies to integrate rapidly a common management structure, providing logistical and administrative support to operational staff whilst being cost effective.”

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has proposed legislation to deal with the 52 part heard matters left in limbo by Marcia Ayers-Caesar.

The proposed legislation is also aimed at avoiding a recurrence of a similar situation and a such the Government is “eager to proceed” with it.

The corrective action proposed by Al-Rawi is the Miscellaneous Provisions (summary Courts and Preliminary Enquiries) Bill 2017.

It is to be presented to the Parliament soon.

Al-Rawi has written to president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes seeking “urgent advice” on the Bill.

On April 12 Ayers-Caesar was sworn in as a High Court judge.

Before her ascension to the High Court Ayers-Caesar held the post of chief magistrate.

Ayers-Caesar resigned as a judge on April 27, however, after there was some discrepancy in the number of matters she had outstanding at the Magistrates’ Court.

Ayers-Caesar originally provided a list to Chief Justice Ivor Archie stating there were 28 matters outstanding.

An independent audit initiated by Archie revealed there were actually 52 part-heard matters.

There has been ongoing dissension by the accused in the matter since then.

“The issue of the outstanding indictable and summary matters that were part-heard before Her Worship Ayers-Caesar continues to be unresolved,” Al-Rawi stated in his letter to Mendes.

“The Government has been urged to consider exigent legislative intervention in order to ensure the orderly disposition of these matters and prevent any further delay and/or future recurrence of such stymied progress in criminal matters due to administrative factors,” the letter stated.

Al-Rawi said the Miscellaneous Provision (Summary Courts and Preliminary Enquiries) Bill 2017 is aimed at clearing the way for the matters to be resolved.

“In respect of preliminary enquiries, the attached Bill seeks to expand the existing limited jurisdiction of the Director of Public Prosecutions to prefer a voluntary bill of indictment pursuant to Section 23(8) of the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Enquiry) Act Chap 12:01 to include instances where a presiding Magistrate is unable to complete or continue a preliminary enquiry, for any reason,” the letter stated.

“Further, where the DPP does not prefer a voluntary bill of indictment and a Magistrate is unable to complete a preliminary enquiry for any reason, the Bill seeks to create a power for another Magistrate to hold a new preliminary enquiry or continue the preliminary enquiry in the interest of justice and with consent of parties,” it stated.

The Bill proposes to “create the power” for another magistrate to take conduct a “new trial or continue the trial with consent of parties” when the presiding magistrate cannot complete it for whatever reason.

“In respect of summary matters, the Bill seeks to create a power for another magistrate to conduct a new trial or continue the hearing of that matter, for any reason,” the letter stated.

“The Government is eager to proceed with this legislation and as a valued stakeholder, will be grateful for the input of the Law Association before the Bill is presented to the Parliament in the upcoming week,” Al-Rawi’s letter to Mendes stated.

The Miscellaneous Provisions (Summary Courts and Preliminary Enquiries) Bill 2017 has proposed amendments to Section 6(2) of the Summary Courts Act Chap 4:20 as well amendments to Sections 14, 23 and 28 of the Indictable Offences (preliminary Enquiry) Act Chap 12:01.

Last Wednesday attorneys representing Ayers-Caesar filed legal action in the High Court against the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) and the Attorney General representing President Anthony Carmona after she claimed she was forced to resign as a judge because of the discrepancy in the number of part heard matters she still had.

In an affidavit filed in support of her lawsuit, Ayers-Caesar stated that magistrates are “generally not responsible” for the delays which are caused when preliminary enquiries have to be adjourned.

The accused, police and lawyers all have to take some blame too, Ayers-Caesar stated.

In her affidavit Ayers-Caesar said she did not intend to mislead Archie about the number of matters she had outstanding but was supplied her information by the Note Taking Unit of the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court.

Ayers-Caesar said her part heard matters “could easily have been dealt with by another magistrate”.

“The process was that the magistrate would call the custodian of the records of the evidence, i.e. the Clerk of the Peace to re-tender the statements taken into evidence,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

She said she used this process in 2009 when she replaced Sherman Mc Nicolls as chief magistrate.

Ayers-Caesar, in her affidavit, said there are various reasons why preliminary enquiries are heard “piecemeal” over time.

“Magistrates hearing preliminary enquiries are generally not responsible for the delays which are caused by the preliminary enquiries being adjourned,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

“The principal reasons for adjournments of these preliminary enquiries include (a) the police vans are unable to take accused persons to court in instances where accused persons refuse to come to Court in an attempt to force an adjournment of their matter because they are aware that their attorneys-at-law are unavailable or that the prosecution witness is expected to give evidence on that day, (b) police witnesses are not available to give evidence at the hearing, (c) Attorneys-at-law for the accused are otherwise engaged and they request adjournments and (d) the large amount of matters on the list of the magistrate which makes it difficult for the preliminary enquiries to start or continue,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

“These reasons account for preliminary enquiries (including my preliminary enquiries) being heard piecemeal over a period of time,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

According to her affidavit Ayers-Caesar said 39 of her 52 part heard matters were preliminary enquiries and could have been dealt with by Section 23 (8) (c) of the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Enquiry) Act Chapter 12:01.

“It was therefore open to the Chief Justice to provide for my 39 preliminary enquiries to be dealt with by another magistrate,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

 In observance of today’s 27th anniversary of the 1990 attempted coup, Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr, along with his members will fast from dawn to dusk for T&T citizens who live below the poverty line.

The fast which will be the first since the insurrection, will begin at 4.30 am and ends at sunset.

At 1.30 pm street dwellers at Tamarind and Woodford Squares, Port-of-Spain, would also be fed hot meals.

The members will also supply boxed lunches to people who reside in cardboard houses in the East Dry River.

“Tomorrow (today) we are going to fast and pray for people who are poor and in need,” Bakr said in a telephone interview yesterday.

In the past, the Jamaat held a dinner in memory of the insurrection, but Bakr opted to break this tradition to stand in defence of the underprivileged.

Bakr said he was surprised that poverty was not raised in last Tuesday’s meeting with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

“No where on the agenda this was mentioned.”

He said this should have been a priority by the two leaders since thousands of citizens were managing their households with $1,000 a month or less.

“Instead they choose to talk about campaign financing and Tobago self-government. The most urgent need that is before people in Trinidad now is this. This is a crisis situation.”

Bakr said Trinidad was becoming an uncivilised society with the savage and senseless slaying of women who are supposed to be nurturers and child bearers.

“Even in the worst case scenario we never used to kill women. Because I dare defend women...look at the amount of problem I get for doing that. I get framed for murder, guns, ammunition, treason...call any amount of thing, I get it. What happen to all those cases? Where them?”

In the Quran, Bakr said men are supposed to be the maintainers, providers and protectors of women, but were now at the mercy of rapists and killers.

“Men could kill men because it always have war. But when men could kill women and slash their throats and rape a 60, 70 or 80 year-old woman, nah!. These days I feeling a little defiant...I feel I should come back out again. But let them stew a little more in the pot. If they continue with the killing of the women, I will come out.”

Asked what he meant by come out, Bakr replied: “I could stop that.”

He said there was too much barbarism and savagery taking place in the country. Bakr said neither Rowley nor Persad-Bissessar have been capable of solving crime. Former NAR minister John Humphrey, who was held hostage by Bakr and his insurrectionists when they stormed the Red House, said 27 years later nobody has figured out why the coup occurred because Bakr never gave evidence in the 2011 Commission of Enquiry.

“The only thing they asked for when we started to negotiate in the Red House was the resignation of Robinson,” Humphrey said. In the enquiry it was reported that 24 people died as a result of the insurgency.

The father and son who were slain in Laventille on Tuesday were killed over ongoing gang war between Rasta City and Muslim, both police and relatives of the men say.

Retired public servant, Fitzroy Daniel, 65, and his son Jabari, 25, were attacked around noon on Tuesday after they went to assist Jabari’s brother Avalon, who had been involved in an accident. Both men were taken to the Port- of- Spain General Hospital where the father was pronounced dead on arrival. His son died hours later while being treated. Both men, of Boxhill Trace, Laventille, were killed at Pump Trace, Picton Road, Laventille in an area called Dan Kelly.

Yesterday, officers attached to the Port-of-Spain Division said the only motive they could conceive was that the men were killed for being in “enemy territory”. Police said three men surrounded the red Nissan Wingroad the father and son were in and without warning opened fire. Jabari attempted to flee the gunmen but was chased and shot. The killers then ran away.

Both father and son, who relatives said were very close, had each been shot three times according to their autopsies done by pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov. Alexandrov said Fitzroy was shot once to the back of the head with the bullet travelling between the scalp and the skull, missing the brain but damaging the skull causing fragments to puncture the brain. He was also shot in the right side of neck and the right armpit. His son was shot in the left palm as he tried to shield himself from bullets.

Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, Avalon Daniel, said he was at hospital when his brother and father were brought in. He said he was involved in an accident and called his brother, who had given him the car to assist. He added that he was taken to the hospital by a relative and while there he got a call saying his brother and father had been shot but he dismissed the call as a bad rumour.

“I see my father dead and doctors trying to save Jabari’s life. And I here wondering why they do this. It’s not even like they in the wrong place because they grow up there and they accustomed living there. And my brother isn’t any bad boy. He isn’t any criminal. He’s nothing like that. He’s a normal man. He love cars, music and women. He love gold and thing too. I always thought if anything, somebody would have killed my brother for, was a woman because he had the thing all the woman like,” Daniel said.

Daniel denied that the killing of his father and brother was linked to the accident. He added that he will now have to move out of the area where the killings happened because he is fearful that he might be next.

“I can’t even explain what going through my mind right now. The men who do it is men who know me good and know that is my brother. If they can kill my brother who is me? I was going in the same red car, but it was my aunt who put me in another car and take me down to the hospital. That murder did not stem from the accident, is Rasta City and Muslim. Where my brother living, they consider that area as Rasta City and where I living is Muslim. But my father born and grow up in Dan Kelly and move over to Boxhill and he and my brother always there (in Dan Kelly), so I don’t know what really cause that yesterday (Tuesday)” Daniel said.

A female relative of the men, who did not and to be named, said she found the entire thing as sad.

CLF shareholders have decided to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal to appoint provisional liquidators for the company.

The decision was announced yesterday by Carlton Reis, spokesman for CLF majority shareholder Lawrence Duprey, hours after the appeal court reversed the decision of the High Court Judge Kevin Ramcharan.

Reis said: “We had made up our mind to go to the Privy Council from the beginning because we know it is the Government we are fighting and it would be a tough battle.”

He maintained the shareholders were resisting the moves to wind up the company as it would have a devastating impact on the company and the country’s economy.

“There is too much at stake. We don’t know why the Government keeps pushing this. They should sit down and talk. We have spoken to investors outside the country who want to come in and pay the debt,” Reis said.

He claimed he had recently travelled to the United States in an effort to solicit US$3 billion from foreign investors, which could be used to clear the $15 billion debt owed to Government for its bailout of its subsidiary Clico in 2009.

However, he claimed the investors still had to do due diligence checks into the company before releasing the funds.

Asked for more information on the interested investors, Reis said they were from several countries, including the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“Mr Duprey used to travel around the world for business and there are a lot of people who are willing to help us,” he claimed.

While he said the shareholders would continue to work on the investors, he claimed Government appeared intent on liquidating the company even if the shareholders were willing to repay the debt.

“They (the Government) have been there for eight years and they are feasting on the company. If you look at the fees they were paying their directors and chairman, even in our glory days they were not paid so much,” Reis said.

Reis and Kirk Carpenter were the two men proposed by shareholders to be added to the company’s board in their bid to retake control of the company from the Government.

The shareholders were expected to vote on the issue during a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, but later postponed the move during the hearing before the Court of Appeal. The move by the shareholders to retake control of the company was one of the grounds raised by the Government for winding up the company.

A Princes Town man was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail for the buggery of his four-year-old cousin in 2006. When he is released from prison he will undergo counselling for three years and programmes will be put in place to treat him.

Sitting in the San Fernando High Court yesterday, Justice Althea Alexis Windsor sentenced the man to two years and eight months on the charge of grievous sexual assault and one year each on two charges of buggery. He will serve a total of one year and six months in jail.

The accused was 15-years-old when the two incidents occurred in 2005 and 2006.

The grievous sexual assault and one count of buggery occurred sometime between April 2005 and April 2006. A second count of buggery occurred sometime in 2006.

The man pleaded guilty to both charges in the San Fernando High Court on May 29. He was represented by attorney Ainsley Lucky while State attorneys Sabrina Dougdeen-Jalgal and Sarah De Silva prosecuted. 

Some elderly residents of Woodbrook, who were issued with $500 tickets for littering on Thursday have been told that the only two options available to them were to pay it or contest it.

That was the advice given by public health inspector in the Port-of-Spain City Corporation, Mitra Sooklal, who was invited to a meeting between the upset residents and mayor Joel Martinez at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.

The issue was raised during yesterday’s statutory meeting and Martinez invited the residents to meet with him after it ended.

The residents said they were issued with the tickets while the garbage was placed in sealed bags. They claim the garbage truck was also in the process of picking up the garbage when they were issued the tickets.

But Sooklal said the tickets could have been issued for tree cuttings placed in front the residents’ homes. He said the entire process is being reviewed.

One of the residents, Kingsley Hinkson, 70, said they were being terrorised by the litter wardens.

“They were terrorising the public in Woodbrook,” he added during the conversation with the mayor and other councillors present.

Another resident, Jocelyn Sealy, said the pensioners were not being treated the way they should be treated. She said the way a country treats its elderly was reflective of the country itself.

Another resident, Betty Bedeau-Mc Shine, said she was fed up and the residents would not be paying the tickets.

She said the litter wardens should go to Ariapita Avenue to do their work. She said on weekends she wakes up to endless garbage bottles and doubles in front of her house and along other nearby streets.

“We are just fed up and now you are telling these senior citizens to contest this, you all deal with it, we are not going to be paying this. You all deal with it,” she added.

But Sooklal said nobody was seeking to terrorise the Woodbrook residents. He asked them to comply with the garbage collection requirements. He said the matter was being reviewed.

During the statutory meeting earlier, Martinez gave more details about the planned renaming of Queen Street, Port -of- Spain in honour of T&T’s first Miss Universe Janelle Penny Commissiong, whom he said has agreed to the proposal. The mayor said trees are to be planted and security cameras installed along the street in the coming weeks. He said the street will be maintained in a way befitting the queen.

He also commented on damage done to Nelson Mandela Park, St Clair by those who are putting up an amusement park there. Mayor Martinez said the damage was unfortunate but work had already begun to restore the park to a state of normalcy.

While Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi is proposing legislation to rectify the debacle caused by the short-lived judicial appointment of former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar, a group of men whose murder case was affected, staged a silent protest yesterday.

Chicki Portello, Kareem Gomez, Levi Joseph, Anthony Charles and Israel “Arnold” Lara protested as they reappeared before acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby-Earle-Caddle in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday morning.

The men and a large group of their relatives, who were present for the hearing, were all dressed in matching white T-shirts bearing the slogans: “Freedom. We are innocent. We want to go home. Set us free. We want justice.”

The group, charged with the same murder, was responsible for a minor riot at the courthouse in April after they learned that their case, which was left unfinished by Ayers-Caesar, may have to be restarted. While they were outspoken at hearings held subsequent to their violent outburst, the accused men were silent during yesterday’s hearing and spoke through their attorney Criston J Williams.

During yesterday’s hearing, a representative from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) indicated that it had gotten the transcript of the group’s case and that DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, was yet to make a determination on how it should proceed. Gaspard is also yet to make an announcement on his decision in relation to the other 51 cases left unfinished by Ayers-Caesar.

Williams suggested that DPP utilise Section 23 (8) c of the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Enquiry) Act which gives him the power to prefer an indictment where a magistrate has heard evidence and is unable to complete the inquiry due to physical or mental infirmary, resignation, retirement or death. The group’s case was adjourned to August 2. Al-Rawi is reportedly currently doing consultations on a Miscellaneous Provisions (Summary Courts and Preliminary Enquiries) Bill 2017, which seeks to address the fallout caused by the Ayers-Caesar debacle.

According to a letter sent to Law Association president Douglas Mendes, SC, which was obtained by the T&T Guardian, the proposed bill seeks to widen the scope of the DPP’s power under the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Enquiry) Act to include instances where a magistrate is unable to complete a preliminary enquiry for any reason.

“Further, where the DPP does not prefer a voluntary bill of indictment and a Magistrate is unable to complete a preliminary enquiry for any reason, the Bill seeks to create a power for another Magistrate to hold a new preliminary enquiry or continue the preliminary enquiry in the interest of justice and with consent of parties,” the letter to Mendes stated.

Ayers-Caesar was appointed a High Court Judge on April 12. She resigned within two weeks due to the public furore over the cases she left incomplete.

Ayers-Caesar originally provided a list to Chief Justice Ivor Archie stating there were 28 matters outstanding. An independent audit initiated by Archie revealed there were actually 52 part-heard matters.

The Judiciary held a stakeholder meeting and had announced that the cases would have be restarted. However, it later reversed its position saying that the decision rests with Gaspard. Ayers-Caesar had since sued Archie, the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC) claiming that she was pressured to resign.

In her affidavit filed in the case last week, Ayers-Caesar said she did not intend to mislead Archie about the number of matters she had outstanding but was supplied her information by the Note Taking Unit of the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court.

She also suggested that the cases could have been dealt with by other magistrates as done in the past.

The Government’s winding up petition for CL Financial (CLF) is set to be heard and determined in early September.

The date was decided as the petition came up for hearing yesterday before High Court Judge Kevin Ramcharan, hours after the Court of Appeal reversed his (Ramcharan) decision over the appointment of two provisional liquidators for the company. 

During the hearing at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, Ramcharan said he felt the case should be determined expeditiously.

“It is to the benefit of the company, the creditors and the shareholders that this matter does not go on longer than necessary,” Ramcharan said as he ruled that the case was appropriate to be heard during the Judiciary’s annual vacation, which ends in mid-September.

He said he was available for the first two weeks in September, but did not confirm the dates as attorneys for the shareholders asked for time to confer over their availability during that period.

In presenting brief submissions before Ramcharan, head of State’s legal team Deborah Peake, SC, claimed the petition could be determined within two days. However, she admitted the duration would depend on the nature and length of the shareholders’ submissions in opposition to the petition.

Even though there are several undetermined applications before Ramcharan to decide whether the shareholders have the right to make representations in the petition, he gave them dates to file their submissions under the proviso that the applications may eventually be determined in their favour in September.

The move was done to ensure all legal submissions are available to the court to prevent delays in September. If they are eventually denied permission their submissions would be ignored by the court.

The shareholders also have an appeal over whether the applications to join the case should have been heard by Ramcharan before he decided on the provisional liquidators last week. Their lawyer, Rachel Caesar, indicated that her clients were yet to decide whether the minor procedural appeal would be withdrawn in light of the Court of Appeal’s ruling on Tuesday and would do so by the end of the week.

The provisional liquidators selected by Government, Hugh Dickson and Marcus Wide of international accounting firm Grant Thornton, were present in court for yesterday’s hearing.

The Government made the application for provisional liquidators and a corresponding winding up petition for the insolvent company earlier this month, after the shareholders signalled their intention to change the composition of the board, which was government-controlled since the 2009 bailout of its subsidiary, Clico.

As a condition of the bailout, CLF, in its shareholder’s agreement with the government, agreed to honour its subsidiary’s debt and allow government to select four members, including the chairman, to its seven-member board. The agreement, which was renewed 17 times since being first signed, expired in August last year but the shareholders refused to sign a new deal.

The shareholders’ refusal was reportedly based on the failure of the Ministry of Finance to consider a proposal from independent auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which suggested that they be given control of the company and allowed to renegotiate the repayment arrangement for the $15 billion still owed to the Government. The Government reportedly rejected the plan as they were not convinced of its viability

CLF managing director Marlon Holder was fired by the company’s Government directors last month over his role in procuring the proposal. He has since sued the company for wrongful dismissal, with the lawsuit set for hearing in mid-September.

The shareholders are also claiming the company’s debt to the Government is inflated and the company is not insolvent, as is required for winding up proceedings.

As part of its ruling on the provisional liquidators, the Court of Appeal attached multiple conditions over their remit. The provisional liquidators will have less power than traditional liquidators, as cane only assess the company’s assets and ensure they are not disposed of pending the determination of the petition to wind up the company. Almost all of the decisions of the provisional liquidators will also have to be approved by the court.

If successful with the petition, the Government will then be able to appoint traditional liquidators who would seek to sell the company’s assets in order to repay Government and other creditors their debts.

Chief of the First Peoples Ricardo Bharath-Hernandez is calling for Government sponsorship amounting to $3 million to assist with the upcoming celebrations leading up to the holiday on October 13.

Bharath-Hernandez was speaking at a news conference hosted yesterday by the First Peoples at the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community Centre, Paul Mitchell Street, Arima.

There will be a week of activities for Heritage Week from October 8 to October 16.

Bharath-Hernandez said to assist there will be a series of fund-raising ventures inclusive of a barbecue, launching of specially designed stamps, buttons and T-shirts.

Bharath-Hernandez said the history of T&T written in history books is inaccurate and distorted.

“To make our presence more evident in this multicultural society,” he added.

He said there was a lack of education at the nation’s schools when it came to knowing about their history.

“The children say we know about how the Carib kill the Arawaks, blah, blah, blah....We had nine nations but there is an effort to have it (history) restructured and it is the first step,” he said.

Bharath-Hernandez said there were several books already published and they were in a process of continuing to educate others because there was a lack of knowledge of their history.

He said it was a most historic moment for the First Peoples of T&T as the State provided a platform for the whole nation to remember the indignities their people suffered.

“The First Peoples now have an equal opportunity as the others to speak of the genocide of several native races, the inhumane treatment of their ancestors and to remind the nation that their ancestors laid the first foundations towards the building of this country,” he said.

Bharath-Hernandez said their lands were taken away and presented as a gift to the newcomers with the First People being marginalised and dispossessed from the time of the European Conquest.

Carib Queen, Jennifer Cassar, said there was an incremental progress in having a holiday and the group had several interactions with this and previous administrations.

“We have been lobbying for years to get a public holiday in T&T but nobody wouldn’t want to give up their own and we settled for a one-off holiday this year,” she said.

Cassar said most people don’t identify with their ethnicity and term themselves “Spanish.”

“People have to be educated and sensitised hence the one-off holiday and we are doing that,” she said.

She said the First Peoples are now getting there and become aware that they are descents.

“We are not pure blood because there is mixed ethnicity and we will get there eventually. There are thousands of us but they have to be aware of who they are,” she said.

Donations can be made to the account #460800243402 at Republic Bank in Arima.

August 1: Canon blast at Calvary Hill and smoke ceremony at the Santa Rosa First People’s Centre, Paul Mitchell Street

August 9: Series of lectures at the University of T&T Indigenous Peoples Day Topic: Names and Places of First Peoples of Kairi. Speaker: Prof, Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo Venue: San Fernando Hill

August 12: Arima Borough Day Activities - First Peoples Display of Culture on the Streets of Arima.

August 14: Novena at the Santa Rosa Church, Woodford Street Arima. Parishioners will be given information about The First Peoples.

August 19: Back to Roots Programme at Caura Valley, Caura, which is special significance since this is one of the settlements where the First Peoples lived. 9.30 am. Mass, followed by Breakfast and visit to old Church Site

August 27: 9. a.m. Santa Rosa Church Service. Sacred Procession through the streets of Arima, followed by Santa Rosa First Peoples Festival at Park.

October 6: Results of DNA testing of the First Peoples of T&T, identification of their genealogical ancestry

October 9: Ancestral journey to Moruga

October 12: Smoke ceremony in front of the Red House St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain

August/September/October 2017 Lectures:

September 29: Final School activity in Arima. Drama presentation by Celebrated Poet and Playwright Pearl Eintou Springer. Other Cultural and Educational events.

On the heels of the killing of Jelani Martins at the hands of the police, Enterprise, Chaguanas residents are now claiming there is a “hit list” of names of people the police are targeting for execution.

However, Central Division Sr Supt Kenny Mc Intyre is categorically denying the claims, saying that police are not executioners and are there to “uphold the law.”

Speaking with the T&T Guardian during a telephone interview yesterday, a 26-year-old Enterprise man claimed his name and those of six others, including members of the Unruly Isis, were on the police hit list. He also claimed Martins’ name was on the list and said he was fearful for his life after Martins was killed by police last Friday.

The man, who is well known to the police but did not want to be identified, claimed on June 13 an attempt was made on his life by police and soldiers who were on patrol.

“I had now done washing and hanging out the clothes when the police called out to me and before I know it they began shooting at me and I had to run for my life,” the man claimed.

Since Martins’ killing, the man said he had gone into hiding.

“I had to move out of Enterprise because I afraid for my life,” the man said.

Asked how he got to know about the alleged hit list, the man said he was told by a soldier he trusts.

“The police have it and a soldier saw it and told another soldier who told me the names on the list, one of which has an x next to it,” the man said.

But when contacted for comment on the claim yesterday, Mc Intyre said he was familiar with the man but said he had no idea what he was talking about.

“He will say a lot of things. We don’t execute people, we are not in the execution business. We are upholding the law and if one breaks the law we will issue a warrant for arrest and arrest that person and if one wants to engage police in terms of a firearm, to do anybody harm or the police harm, we will respond appropriately,” Mc Intyre said.

Relatives of Roumelda ‘Twinkle” King said yesterday she suffered a life of abuse at the hands of the man who took her life.

King, 51, was chopped to death by her husband Hilton Gordon King, 55, while on her job site at Moriah yesterday morning.

The T&T Guardian understands that around 7.55 am, Roumelda, a worker with the Unemployment Relief Programmer (URP), was at her jobsite when her husband allegedly walked up to her in full view of her co-workers and started chopping her about her body with a cutlass. He later threw her over an embankment in some bushes and left the scene. He was later found dead in the bedroom of his house. A poisonous liquid was found close the body. Police believe he may have committed suicide.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Garfield Moore told reporters in Tobago yesterday that King had made several reports about her abuse and also had a protection order against her husband. He said the couple was also separated for some time.

Adding he believed the outcome could have been avoided, Moore said: “She would have made several reports, in fact there was a protection order from the court…We are saddened by the incident and we just want to send condolences to the family of both parties, because these are things that sometimes it happens and we can avoid these things.

“Maybe if we talk to one another and I am hoping the public itself would have known of these incidents, could send the information to us, that we can have some intervention methods to really prevent these things from happening.”

The T&T Guardian understands that the couple recently separated and Mrs King had moved out of the matrimonial home at Congo Hill, Moriah, last week.

The motive behind the killing is yet to be ascertained. However, friend of the couple, Wayne Bovell, said he was unaware they were facing marital problems

“Teeth and tongue does meet, but God never give a man what he can’t bear, but at the same time God doesn’t permit a man to take another man’s life … This outcome really baffled me,” Bovell told the T&T Guardian.

“I cried because me and he go deep, everybody knew what was going on…I telling you the honest truth, no I didn’t pick up any signs. If I did only pick up any signs I would have told him come let us go up the road… we were really close and it hurt me.”

Speaking to the media about the incident after visiting the scene to offer comfort to relatives, Assemblyman Sheldon Cunningham urged people to remain alert and be empathetic when violent domestic situations occur

“When there are serious issues we label people so much on the outside, because we don’t know what happened on the inside. Let us empathise with people, because people try to share their stories, but they don’t know who to share them to and sometimes you share them with people and you are not too sure what is going to be the result and as you can see the results of today, that he was able to take his wife’s life and his life,” he said.

Cunningham reminded that the Mediation Centre, medical, psychological and community social workers under the Division of Health Wellness and Family Development were available free of charge to resolve issues before going to the open court.

King was the second women attacked and killed so far this week. On Monday, Elizabeth Lewis was found nude and dead on her bed with her hands tied at her Old Valencia Road, Valencia home. It was initially thought that her throat slit, but an autopsy revealed she was raped and strangled, with the killer/s using her own dress as the weapon.

The murder toll for the year now stands at 280.