The police officer who was accused of murdering a Canadian couple at Blanchisseuse in 1994 was freed yesterday after the main witness against him-his ex-wife-confessed that police had forced her to fabricate evidence against him.
"The police say that the government have to satisfy the government of Canada that they have to get somebody for (the murders of the Canadian couple)," Nicole Doorgadeen told a jury in the Port of Spain First Criminal Court.
She said when she first told the police she knew nothing of the murders, they insisted that she had to testify, threatening to put her in jail and even to kill her.
"My family deserted me. I even lost my daughter because of this incident. My daughter ran away from home and up to now I don't know where she is," Doorgadeen said, breaking down in tears.
Describing the development as "bizarre", presiding Justice Melville Baird called upon the State to investigate the woman's accusations.
"This is an allegation of the highest type of misconduct and without any question it has to be investigated. It cannot be swept under the carpet," the judge told Senior State prosecutor Wayne Rajbansie.
Ronald Doorgadeen, 38, had been charged in 1996 for the murders of Geoff and Sherelle Ann Barnes. Their semi-nude bodies were found on May 11, 1994, lying in the sands of Delmare beach in Blanchisseuse. Sherelle Ann was then four months pregnant.
The Toronto couple had been vacationing-and were also said to have been investigating possible business interests in this country-when they were taken to the beach, drugged and drowned.
In three statements to the police after her husband's arrest, Nicole Doorgadeen claimed that her husband had conspired with others to kill the couple to cash in on a Can$200,000 life insurance policy which had been taken out on Sherelle Ann.
She had also detailed a number of conversations she had had with her husband and several suspicious actions he was in the days following the double murder.
However, she retracted the statements yesterday.
She said that the police, in addition to threatening her, had also promised to see that six pending fraud matters against her were dismissed and that she would receive money "to start (her) life over".
"They kept coming all the time. I told the police I can't do this and they keep saying I have to. My evidence was not true," she went on.
Rajbansie asked Baird to dismiss the case, saying that since her evidence was the backbone of the State's case, "it would be against conscience (and) public policy ... to hold her out as a reliable witness".
Defence attorney Ravi Rajcoomar agreed that the case should be dismissed. He said it was "frightening" to know that his client could have been sentenced to death last year, when Nicole had testified in line with her statements.
At the end of that trial, the jury failed to agree on a verdict and a retrial was ordered.
Leaving the Hall of Justice yesterday, a free man after over seven years in jail, Doorgadeen said he was looking forward to celebrating his birthday next Tuesday.
Declaring that he had had nothing to do with the murders, he declined to say how he felt about his ex-wife.
State attorney Angelica Teelucksingh appeared with Rajbansie for the prosecution, while attorneys Prakash Ramadar and Ian Ibrahim also represented Doorgadeen.
Nicole Doorgadeen was accompanied out of court by a nun, Sister Paul-Clarke, and left the premises in a Sacred Heart RC Church, La Brea, vehicle.
