Cops testify at trial of 8 men charged with murder

ONE of the officers who assisted the son of Gerald Gopaul during ransom negotiations with one of his father’s kidnappers on Thursday testified at the trial of the eight men charged with the real estate agent’s murder.

Sgt Deyal Ramlakhan, who, in 2005, worked with the Anti Kidnapping Unit, said he went to Gopaul’s home at Papourie Road, Diamond Village, on July 9 and 12, 2005.

He was not the only police officer at the family’s home but he was present when Dennis Gopaul received calls from one of his father’s kidnappers and when the “proof of life” was given.

Ramlakhan said he documented the conversations. Of the calls that came in while he was there, Ramlakhan was able to provide the numbers which registered on the caller-id feature of the recording device he hooked up to the Gopaul’s land line.

He was also able to ascertain the locations where the calls were made. The calls he recorded would have come from the Port of Spain area because of the “627” area code and San Fernando because of the “657” area code. He also said he gave the unit’s central office the location of the caller but admitted that he did not know if investigators went there.

He said he was not involved in that part of the investigation and, ““I don’t know if anyone was sent to the location. I was unaware of what the investigating arm did,” he said.

Also testifying was ASP Intab Ramjohn, a police fingerprint investigator, who processed a forested area in Grand Curacaye, Bourg Mulatress. There he found a piece of plastic, a piece of cloth and took loose soil samples.

He tested the plastic for fingerprints and found none, sent the piece of cloth to the Forensic Science Centre for analysing and did nothing with the soil sample.

In testimony on Wednesday, Dennis Gopaul spoke of the phone calls he received from his father’s alleged abductors in July 2005.

The younger Gopaul received the ransom demands from his father’s kidnappers, and gave details of the calls he received from the same “male voice” in the days following the abduction on July 8, 2005.

The elder Gopaul, 52, was abducted from the Diamond Recreation Club, Diamond Village, and his body found 11 days after at Trantrail Road, St Augustine.

He was beaten to death, according to prosecutors. Eight men have been charged with his murder. They are: Kenneth Pierre, Paul Bodoo, Ricardo Stephenson, Clifford Sorias, Marvin Critchlow, Kendall Joseph, Sherwyn Crystom, and Kendell Davis. Presiding over their trial is Justice Norton Jack at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain.