A medical certificate for teenager Alex Griffith, who was allegedly shot in the mouth by a policeman, was admitted into evidence yesterday when the trial of the accused Franz Paul continued.
Cadet Officer Paul is on trial for discharging a loaded firearm at then 15-year-old Griffith, with intent to maim, disfigure or cause bodily harm, which he has denied.
When the trial continued yesterday before Magistrate Fabayo Azore in Georgetown, Police Inspector Troy Whittaker, who was stationed at the Office of Professional Responsibility at the time of the shooting, testified.
Whittaker said relative to the report of the shooting, which occurred on April 30, 2014, he received information from the officer-in-charge and proceeded to the office of Mark Benschop, located on East Street, on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 6, last year.
On arrival, he said, he met and spoke with a woman, whose name he only learned yesterday before he testified. She was Marcel Griffith, the mother of the teenager.
The witness added that in the presence of Benschop, the woman handed over an original medical certificate bearing the name Alex Griffith. He noted that the certificate had other information written on it also.
Having received the certificate, Whittaker said he affixed his initials “T.W” on it in their presence, after which he returned to his office and placed the certificate in a white envelope, marked Alex Griffith, and lodged it for safekeeping. He did not uplift it until yesterday’s date to bring it before the court.
The prosecutor, Police Inspector Stephen Telford, made an application for the certificate to be marked as evidence.
His application was granted and the medical was labelled as “Exhibit A.”
Marcel Griffith also briefly testified yesterday, when she took the stand and positively identified the medical certificate.
The trial was adjourned until March 12th.
At the time of the shooting, Paul was said to have been personally investigating a robbery committed on his sister. Alex Griffith, who the police believed was a witness to the robbery, was picked up for questioning, although he had strenuously denied seeing anything.
