Sascha Wil­son

The San Fer­nan­do Supreme Court was shut down yes­ter­day to be sani­tised af­ter a po­lice of­fi­cer at­tached to the cell block test­ed pos­i­tive over the week­end for the In­fluen­za A/H1N1 virus. Crim­i­nal and civ­il mat­ters, with the ex­cep­tion of two civ­il mat­ters, were ad­journed and staff sent home yes­ter­day morn­ing. But, it was not un­til 12 noon that the court closed its doors to mem­bers of the pub­lic. The po­lice con­sta­ble, at­tached to Court and Process, is said to be in a crit­i­cal con­di­tion at the In­ten­sive Care Unit of the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. The of­fi­cer, who worked in the court last week, is vom­it­ing blood and is on a ven­ti­la­tor, a source said. The source added that a tube is to be in­sert­ed in his throat to as­sist his breath­ing. His col­leagues, who were in di­rect con­tact with him, are yet to be test­ed.

Un­able to ac­cess their uni­forms be­cause that area of the court was re­strict­ed, the of­fi­cers wore plain clothes in the court­rooms. The judges were is­sued with no­tices yes­ter­day in­form­ing them of the sit­u­a­tion. In dis­miss­ing the ju­rors in the Sec­ond Crim­i­nal Court, Jus­tice An­tho­ny Car­mona said they were re­li­ably in­formed that one of the po­lice of­fi­cers who worked in the Third Court, and would have passed through the oth­er crim­i­nal courts, was di­ag­nosed with the H1N1 virus. Car­mona said: "We were re­li­ably in­formed he is in ICU and he is vom­it­ing blood and on a ven­ti­la­tor. It seems the sit­u­a­tion is of great ex­treme and the court in the cir­cum­stances can­not be ir­rre­spon­si­ble by in­dif­fer­ence." The judge apol­o­gised for the in­con­ve­nience, say­ing they had to con­firm what had been ru­moured.

He ex­pressed hope the of­fi­cer would re­cov­er quick­ly. He ad­journed two cas­es; Mukesh Chan­dra­dath, charged with mur­der, to Thurs­day and Gar­ri­son Adams, charged with drug-traf­fick­ing, ad­journed to to­mor­row. In the Third Crim­i­nal Court Jus­tice Gillian Lucky was ex­pect­ed to sum up an ar­son mat­ter in which two broth­ers are charged and in the First Court Jus­tice Prakash Moo­sai is pre­sid­ing over a mur­der tri­al in which Andy Adams is in the dock. Both mat­ters were ad­journed to to­day. How­ev­er, at 1 pm mat­ters were still be­ing heard in SF 16 and SF 9. Se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers, with­out any masks, al­so re­mained in the build­ing. The court is ex­pect­ed to be sani­tised by Cen­tu­ry 21 Jan­i­to­r­i­al to­day. Po­lice of­fi­cers al­so said they want­ed the San Fer­nan­do Po­lice Sta­tion to be sani­tised.