Judge blocks prosecution’s attempts to show trousers to witnesses in Mario Deane trial

The presiding judge in the ongoing Mario Deane trial today denied the prosecution’s applications to show a pair of denim trousers to two different witnesses from the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, during their respective evidence-in-chief.

During the trial of Corporal Elaine Stewart and Constables Juliana Clevon and Marlon Grant, High Court Justice Courtney Daye twice shut down the application on the basis that the trousers, which had allegedly been worn by Deane when he was beaten while in custody at the St James-based Barnett Street Police Station lock-up on August 3, 2014, had not yet been put into evidence as an exhibit in the case.

At the time of Daye’s ruling, the prosecution was hearing the testimonies of forensic officer Karen Hylton-Grayson and chief forensic science officer Hillary Mullings-Williams, who both testified via the online platform Zoom.

The judge’s ruling today echoed a ruling he made earlier in the trial, where he denied the prosecution an opportunity to show the trousers to Deane’s mother Mercia Fraser, the prosecution’s first witness, when she retook the stand on April 25.

Fraser previously testified that she received a pair of jeans from a doctor at the Cornwall Regional Hospital on August 4, 2014, the day after Deane was beaten. She could not say if the trousers were the same trousers Deane wore when he visited her several months earlier.

During today’s hearing, Hylton-Grayson concluded her evidence-in-chief by positively identifying the package that contained the trousers, which she said she received from the Independent Commission of Investigations' forensics department head, Peter Parkinson.

Meanwhile, Mullings-Williams told the court that she received several packages containing cotton swabs with blood samples and items of bloodstained clothing.

Stewart, Clevon, and Grant are charged with manslaughter and misconduct in a public office, in relation to Deane’s death on August 6, 2014, three days after he was beaten. Stewart is also charged with perverting the course of justice, under allegations that she ordered that the cell where Deane was beaten be cleaned before the arrival of INDECOM investigators.

- Christopher Thomas

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