A former cop-turned-state witness has claimed that a policeman, implicated in the abduction of two men from a plaza on the Washington Boulevard five years ago, admitted to shooting one of the victims.

Two of the three policemen who were implicated in the abduction and murder of the men appeared in the Home Circuit Court yesterday.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Victor Barrett also appeared in court and is charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

Corporals Paul Edwards and Louie Lynch were charged on Wednesday for the murder of 20-year-old Kemar Walters of Kitson Town, St Catherine, and 35-year-old Oliver Duncan of Olympic Gardens, Kingston 11.

Senior Puisne Judge Marva McIntosh remanded the three policemen to return to court on June 18 when a determination will be made as to whether they will be granted bail.

Double murder

Constable Peter Silvera is also to be charged with the double murder.

Walters and Duncan were handcuffed by policemen and driven away from Washington Plaza, off the Washington Boulevard, St Andrew, on December 23, 2004. They have not been seen since. The Crown is alleging that the men were shot dead.

The police, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields, reopened the case in April last year following a series of articles published by The Gleaner on the disappearance of the two men.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Dirk Harrison said the Crown was opposing bail for the policemen on the grounds that they would interfere with the investigations.

Harrison asked for two weeks for the police to complete the investigations but defence lawyers K. Churchill Neita and Valerie Neita-Robertson opposed the application on the grounds that the investigations had been going on for five years and should have been completed before the men were arrested and charged.

The judge said she was only granting one week to complete the investigations.

Harrison, in outlining the prosecution's case, said the main witness is former police Corporal Emerson Henry who is in the Witness Protection Programme.

Harrison said that on December 23, 2004 Detective Corporal Clayton Lawrence, Edwards and Constable Emerson Henry, who were attached to the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID), stopped at Washington Plaza, off the Washington Boulevard, where a blue Honda CR-V motor car was seen. The police party stopped to investigate if the motor vehicle was stolen.

Walters and Duncan were handcuffed, questioned and taken to OCID and other policemen were called to join them.

The allegation

The Crown is alleging that Lynch arrived at the scene some time after and the policemen left the area with the two men. Henry and Lawrence were left with the blue Honda CR-V motor vehicle and were later instructed to take the motor vehicle to the Port Royal main road.

It is further alleged that a decision was taken to burn the vehicle and Edwards threw gasolene on it and set it ablaze. Edwards also allegedly admitted to Henry that he shot Duncan.

In relation to Barrett, the Crown is alleging that he told Henry and the other policemen that they should not tell anyone what had transpired.

The defence is also saying Barrett coerced Henry to sign a false statement which Barrett had dictated.

Lawrence was charged in connection with the disappearance of the men but he was freed in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court in 2007. He was freed of charges of assault and false imprisonment because there was insufficient evidence to link him with the crime.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com