Michael McLean, who is being tried for the gruesome murder of six family members in St Thomas in 2006, yesterday told the court that he had warned the police that they would be killed before they died but the cops never took him seriously.

The 50-year-old chef, during his unsworn testimony from the witness box in the trial before the Home Circuit Court, said that he had visited the police two-and-a-half weeks before the two women and four children were killed.

He also said that on February 26, a day after five of the victims’ bodies were found, he received a call from an Inspector Hall and he told the policeman that what happened could have been avoided because he had gone to the police two-and-a-half weeks before.

According to McLean, Inspector Hall made the call to him as the cop had feared that he was dead.

McLean also testified that the police’s response after the killings was that they didn’t know it was that serious.

The accused also told the seven-member jury that the victims were killed in a drug deal gone wrong.

McLean is being tried for six counts of murder in the deaths of his girlfriend, Terry-Ann “Teeny” Mohammed, 42; her nine-year-old son, Jessie O’Gilvie; her niece, Patrice Martin-McCool, 30; and her niece’s children, Lloyd McCool, three; Jihad McCool, six; and Sean Chin, nine, between February 25 and 26.

Four of the victims were found on Prospect Beach in St Thomas with their throats slashed, while Mohammed was found in bushes in Needham Pen, also in St Thomas, with burns all over her body and her throat slashed.

The decomposing body of Jihad was found in a shallow grave in St Mary a week after the killings.

During his testimony McLean provided more details about the murders which, in some instance, were quite different from what he said in his caution statement.

He testified that on February 24 he went to Rosemount in St Mary with his girlfriend and Patrice McCool.

According to him, he was not feeling well and was taken to a bush doctor in the parish.

McLean said at that time he had a lot of US dollars and cocaine in his grey Range Rover that he was driving.

He told the court that while in St Mary, Mohammed told him that they had to stash the drugs before returning to St Thomas.

He testified that on the night of February 25, while carrying Mohammed home from work, they were blocked by two vehicles with men who were asking about drugs and guns that Mohammed’s cousin had stolen from them.

McLean said that Mohammed offered to pay money for what was stolen, but the men refused the offer.

Additionally, he said the men further inquired about Mohammed’s cousin.

McLean said Mohammed eventually told them her cousin was with her niece’s husband who, he said, also handled drugs.

According to McLean, the men then pulled Mohammed by the hair and took her with them.

The accused said he was left in the car with Jihad McCool and three other guys who kept them in a narrow lane for about 45 minutes.

While there he said he got a phone call from someone saying “What did you stash, you and Teeni yesterday?”

McLean told the court he knew exactly what the person on the other line was asking about.

The guys, he said, then forced him to drive to the spot in Rosemount, St Mary, and he showed them where the cocaine had been hidden.

He said the men took the crying baby from the car and did not return with her.

The accused, who said he was “traumatised”, told the court that the men then ordered him to drive to a gas station and when they got there they told him to leave.

Mclean also told the court that on the evening of February 25, Patrice and her kids came to the restaurant and left.

Mclean was forced to take the witness stand after Justice Bertram Morrison ruled that he had a case to answer following a no-case submission.

The trial will resume tomorrow.