Two former students appear in court

Ten years after an alleged end-of-examination prank damaged Gasparillo Composite School, two former students have appeared in court, charged with maliciously setting fire to the institution in 2001.
Yesterday, Marlon Brandon and Owen Baptiste, both 26, of Gasparillo, appeared before San Fernando First Court magistrate Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds, charged with the offence. They were brought to court by way of summons.

Ramsumair-Hinds read the charge that on June 25, 2001, at Bonne Aventure Road, Gasparillo, Brandon and Baptiste did maliciously set fire to the Gasparillo Composite School.  The charge was laid indictably by Cpl Hugh Elbourne. The accused were not called upon to plead. Attorney Ainsley Lucky questioned why it took the prosecution ten years to issue the summons for the matter.

Ramsumair-Hinds, however, said that was for the prosecution to know. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” Lucky said. Court prosecutor Ramdath Phillip said a third former student, Darryl Lawrence, was also charged with the offence. Phillip, however, said Lawrence was yet to be served with a summons to appear in court. Elbourne, however, indicated that Lawrence’s father was served with the summons.

The men had been placed on their own bail in the sum of $15,000 each, and Lucky asked that it remain.
The magistrate agreed and adjourned the matter to June 7. The 2001 fire, which caused $7,000 in damage at Gasparillo Composite, now called Gasparillo Secondary School, was set in a block which housed the male and female washrooms, locker rooms, technical drawing rooms and a storage room.
 The fire damaged the female toilet area and the ceiling.  No one was hurt in the blaze.

 Last November, fire broke out at the same school after students lit firecrakers and threw them on mats in the gymnasium. Parts of the school’s auditorium and the maintenance areas were damaged.
Investigations into that incident have not yet been completed.