BVI : Police cannot find the firearm at the centre of the case involving Halim Scatliffe, who is charged with carrying an unlicensed firearm.
As a result of the loss, Senior Crown Counsel Valston Graham made an application for the photographs of the firearm to be used instead.
When the matter came up in the Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, May 9, Graham recalled that during the previous trial he was in the process of taking the evidence of a police officer, and was to present the firearm, when he was told that officers could not locate the evidence.
“The police still can’t locate the firearm despite their best efforts,” Graham told the court yesterday.
In making his application for the photos to be tendered into evidence, the Crown counsel said that secondary evidence can be admitted into court in lieu of primary evidence, when such primary evidence has deteriorated or cannot be found.
Graham said two officers have testified in court previously that a firearm was found in a vehicle the defendant had possession of.
In the meantime Stacey Abel, Scatliffe’s attorney, asked the court for some time to respond to Graham’s application and to “ensure that her client was not being prejudice”.
At a previous appearance, Scatliffe had pleaded not guilty to unlawful possession of explosives and carrying an unlicensed firearm.
It was disclosed that during a stop and search operation conducted in Purcell Estate area by members of the proactive unit of the Anti-Drug and Violent Task Force, a black van was stopped and searched. Police found a loaded, silver 9mm firearm underneath the driver’s seat along with 54 grams of cannabis.
Scatliffe, the owner and driver of the vehicle, was cautioned and subsequently arrested.
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