Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
STRONG OBJECTIONS yesterday from defence lawyer Jacqueline Samuels-Brown prevented a United Kingdom consultant forensic scientist from telling the court of the experiment which he conducted on a rifle taken from the crime scene at Kraal, Clarendon.
Dr. Geoffrey Maxwell Roe from the University of Liverpool had conducted the experiment on the rifle at the Supreme Court building on November 15.
The experiment was done after the rifle was tendered in evidence as an exhibit at the trial of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and the other five policemen charged with murder. The policemen have been on trial since October 31, for the murder of four civilians who were fatally shot at Kraal on May 7, 2003.
After identifying the rifle in a video clip in court and in photographs, Dr. Roe said that if a body was dragged past the strap of the rifle in the position in which the rifle was on the floor, it would not have remained in that position.
Mrs. Samuels-Brown objected to the evidence being led. She said the experiment was conducted after the firearm was tendered in evidence. She stressed that the court's permission was not sought for the experiment to be conducted. She said the defence was not aware that the experiment was done last week, and said further that the integrity of the so-called experiment was called into question. She said no proof was supplied to the defence that any body was dragged.
Kent Pantry, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions, who was examining the witness, said based on the objections raised, he would not pursue that line of evidence any further.
PLANTING OF EVIDENCE
The Crown is alleging that there was the planting of evidence at the crime scene, and the policemen were not acting in lawful self-defence when the civilians were fatally shot.
Dr. Roe said earlier in his testimony that the Forensic Science Service in London sent the case file to him. He said the file contained copies of statements from policemen from the Scenes of Crime Unit in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
