Taxi assoc head faces preliminary enquiry Feb 1

EGETON Newman, the president of the National Association of Taxi Operators, is scheduled to face a preliminary enquiry on February 1 into allegations of carnal abuse.

In the meantime, the taxi association president has been remanded in custody when he appeared in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate's Court.

The charges, the police said, arose out of claims by a 12-year-old girl that she was carnally abused on January 10. According to the police, both Newman and the complainant were at a fair when Newman asked the girl to stay with him after the fair. Some time later that day, Newman is alleged to have climbed on top of the young girl and gained carnal knowledge of her body. He was arrested and charged on January 14.
- Vaughn Davis

Kilancholly murder accused ruled fit to plea

JEFFREY Perry, the Kilancholly, St Mary resident who allegedly slashed his three young cousins' throats in 2005 and claimed insanity, is to stand trial for murder after a seven-member jury last Thursday found him fit to plea.

After hearing four days of testimony in the fitness to plea trial at the Kingston Home Circuit Court, jurors deliberated for about 30 minutes before returning their verdict.
An accused cannot be tried for an offence unless he has the ability to understand the nature of the charges against him, the ability to challenge the impaneling of jurors, the ability to challenge a witness, the ability to instruct his attorney and the ability to follow court proceedings.

The court was asked to decide if the accused was fit to plea after psychiatrist Dr Herbert Wieder testified that Perry does not meet the criteria to stand trial due to mental illnesses, while psychiatrists Drs Terence Bernard and Arlene McGill said Perry was fit to stand trial.
Perry is accused of murdering Shadice Williams, 4, Dwayne Davidson, 15, and Suann Gordon, 13, on the night of January 28, 2005, while their mother Sonia Williams was at church.

Higgler convicted for murder

A 12-member jury last Tuesday convicted 27-year-old higgler Leroy Williams of murder in the Kingston Home Circuit Court for the 2005 shooting death of a fellow resident of the rural St Catherine community of Gobay, located just outside of Riversdale.
Williams - who in an unsworn testimony from the dock denied being at the scene when the murder was committed - will be sentenced this Friday.
- Paul Henry

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