Resh­ma Ra­goonath

WPC Nicole Clement was tak­en to the Princes Town Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment af­ter be­ing in­jured while be­ing trans­port­ed to court yes­ter­day. Her emer­gency hos­pi­tal vis­it led to the pre­ma­ture ad­journ­ment of the pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in­to the mur­ders of Alana Dun­can, Abi­gail John­son and Ker­ron "Fin­gers" Ec­cles which was list­ed to be­gin yes­ter­day be­fore Princes Town First Court Mag­is­trate De­bra Quin­tyne.

Clement is the lone fe­male ac­cused among sev­en po­lice of­fi­cers-act­ing Cor­po­ral Khem­raj Sa­hadeo and PCs An­to­nio Ramd­hin, Glen Singh, Roger Nicholas, Re­nal­do Rivero and Safraz Ju­man-charged for the Ju­ly 21, 2011, mur­ders. Yes­ter­day, the six male of­fi­cers ap­peared in court with­out Clement, at 10.20 am. Her lawyer, Pamela El­der, SC, said at 9.45 am, a Court and Process of­fi­cer told her the po­lice­woman had been tak­en to Princes Town Hos­pi­tal.

She said she went to the po­lice sta­tion, where she was told that Clement suf­fered a "lit­tle mishap" in the ve­hi­cle in which she was be­ing trans­port­ed to court yes­ter­day. El­der said Clement was seat­ed in the back of the ve­hi­cle and "due to the dri­ving, she slid off the seat and fell and re­ceived abra­sions to her hands." She said she thought Clement would have been ok to at­tend court.

How­ev­er, by 10.20 am, there was no up­date on her con­di­tion. Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Roger Gas­pard, who is pros­e­cut­ing the mat­ter, to­geth­er with Gilbert Pe­ter­son, SC, and Trevor Jones, sug­gest­ed the mat­ter be ad­journed. The mat­ter was stood down to get an up­date on the WPC's con­di­tion.

El­der, af­ter read­ing a text mes­sage, said Clement was al­so vom­it­ing and had di­ar­rhoea. "I do not know if one is linked to the oth­er," she added. "I do not know how se­ri­ous her con­di­tion is and she may need some time to re­cu­per­ate in a tri­al that may be lengthy."