Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Lit­i­gants com­plained loud­ly yes­ter­day af­ter be­ing de­nied en­try in­to the Princes Town First Court as for­mer mur­der ac­cused WPC Nicole Clement ap­peared on charges of per­vert­ing the course of jus­tice. Clement is now a state wit­ness against six of her male col­leagues charged with mur­der.

The lit­i­gants, many of whom were anx­ious­ly wait­ing for their cas­es to be called, had to stand in the cramped cor­ri­dor out­side the court­room as she ap­peared in a near-emp­ty air-con­di­tioned court­room.

On­ly po­lice who ac­com­pa­nied Clement and oth­er po­lice wait­ing for their cas­es to come up were in court at the time. Clement, dressed in a black skirt suit, ar­rived at the cour­t­house around 8.45 am sur­round­ed by heav­i­ly-armed po­lice in tac­ti­cal uni­forms and was es­cort­ed in­to court by two of­fi­cers in plain clothes.

She sat in the locked court­room along with her po­lice es­corts. Jour­nal­ists and mem­bers of the pub­lic were locked out of the court­room while Clement was seat­ed in­side the court­room. One woman com­plained, "It is be­cause she is a po­lice nah." An­oth­er was heard say­ing, "If it was we, they woul­da let every­body see." At 9.38 am, Mag­is­trate De­bra Quin­tyne ar­rived in court and called Clement's mat­ter. Jour­nal­ists were al­lowed in for the hear­ing but mem­bers of the pub­lic were not.

Quin­tyne asked Clement if her at­tor­ney, Pamela El­der, SC, was ex­pect­ed in court. Clement, who was ar­rest­ed and charged by Sgt Michael Veronique, said El­der was not ap­pear­ing in court yes­ter­day. Quin­tyne asked for Veronique and pros­e­cu­tor WPC Sta­cy Chance said she had no in­for­ma­tion from him.

The mag­is­trate then ad­journed the mat­ter to May 7. "That is four months away. You will in­form Ms El­der," the mag­is­trate said. Af­ter ad­journ­ing the mat­ter Quin­tyne told po­lice: "I will rise to clear the court­room then al­low mem­bers of the pub­lic in."

Clement had been charged, along with act­ing Sgt Khem­raj Sa­hadeo and PCs Re­nal­do Re­viero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Ju­man and An­to­nio Ra­madin, with the killing of Moru­ga res­i­dents Abi­gail John­son, Al­lana Dun­can and Ker­ron "Fin­gers" Ec­cles.

They were shot at Rochard Dou­glas Road, Bar­rack­pore, on the night of Ju­ly 22, 2011. The mur­der charges against Clement were dropped last June when she turned state wit­ness against her six col­leagues. She is free on $100,000 bail. The pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in­to the triple mur­der is ex­pect­ed to re­sume on Feb­ru­ary 4.