State witness recants; tells court he was ordered to implicate Bisram

State Prosecutor Stacy Goodings 

A seventeen-year-old who was being regarded as a key witness for the state in the Marcus Bisram has recanted the story represented in his statement which the state hoped would have made its case stronger.

Two weeks ago, when the teenager provided his evidence under oath in the court, he told the magistrate; while being cross-examined, that he was instructed by the state prosecutor Stacy Goodings and Police Inspector Prem Narine to sate those things which were in his statement.

Marcus Bisram during one of his court appearances

While the courtroom was cleared for his testimony two weeks ago, the revelations came to light today in court after the prosecution attempted to have the young man present at a proposed site visit of the crime scene. Defense Attorney Glen Hanoman questioned why State Prosecutor Ms. Goodings and Police Inspector Prem Narine were still having access to the witness who cleared implicated. Hanoman questioned why the two were also not the subject of a police criminal investigation.

“The state has been unlawfully attempting to pervert the course of justice, I am concerned that these two are still having access to this witness,” Hanoman told the court.

The defense lawyers argued that given that the prosecutor and the police inspector were accused of instructing the young man of what to put I his statement in an effort to implicate Marcus Bisram, the witness cannot be relied on to provide additional information and or evidence to the court on the matter especially the site visit.

Last week, state prosecutor Stacy Goodings made arguments that the four persons who are also charged for the murder of Faiyaz Narinedatt be allowed to give statements in favor of the prosecution.

Attorney at Law Sanjeev Datadin objected to that on the grounds that the men are his client and that neither he nor the men were approached and or informed that the state wanted to use them against Marcus Bisram

Today the magistrate ruled that she will not be allowing the men to testify against Bisram or that their statements be used against him.

A ruling was also made that the various parts of the evidence in this case where the police spoke of what they did in relation to the matter would also not be allowed to go as evidence against Bisram as those bits are already being used against the five accused.

The matter will be called again on March 05, 2020