CLAIMING misleading coverage of the Crawle murder trial of six police officers, Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe yesterday threatened to exclude reporters from the proceedings if they continued with their alleged inaccuracies.

“If the media write any further inaccuracies . in the interest of justice the media will be excluded from the trial,” Wolfe declared.

The chief justice’s ire was raised by headlines on Saturday on stories relating to the case in Jamaica’s two morning dailies, the Observer and the Gleaner.

In the case of the Observer, Wolfe was angered by a headline – brought to his attention by Director of Public Prosecutions Kent Pantry – to the effect that Deputy Commissioner of police Mark Shields had testified to “bugging” the phone of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, one of the defendants in the case.

As was accurately reported by the Observer, Shields had told the court that he had, during the investigation, attached a recording device to a telephone being used by a policeman – who figured in the events at Crawle where four persons were shot dead – who was in a conversation with Adams.

“I attached a device on the telephone to record a conversation with Sergeant Facey and Superintendent Adams,” Shields, a former Scotland Yard officer, told the court on Friday.

But yesterday Pantry complained to Wolfe that the newspapers – the Observer for the recording device issue and the Gleaner about a British judge’s reprimand of Shields for his conduct in a UK case – had misrepresented what was said in court.

Journalists, Pantry lectured, had to be more “responsible” in their reporting.

“It is most unfortunate that this is happening while the trial is going on,” Wolfe warned. “. If anything such as this happens again, I intend to remove the media from the trial.”

Added the chief justice: “Nothing was said about bugging. They have to be careful how they report what happens in court. If the media people want to participate in this trial they have to be more cautious and careful when reporting matters in this trial. They don’t interpret anything, they just write.”

The judge suggested that the ostensible inaccuracies could compromise the trial and lamented the fact that, unlike some other jurisdictions, Jamaican reporters covering trials were not trained lawyers.

“I cannot afford, after all this time… that anything prejudicial should be done to abort this trial,” he said.

Wolfe also referred to the lead story in the Sunday Observer, quoting the permanent secretary in the national security ministry, Gilbert Scott, saying that the government had agreed to contribute $19 million to the defence of the policemen on trial.

“That kind of thing should not be done during the trial,” he said. The chief justice, however, did not indicate in what way the reporting was wrong or how it would compromise the trial.

Defence attorney Churchill Neita QC, however, suggested that the figure was inaccurate, but did not say what the defence would cost.

“I don’t know where the $19 million is,” he told the Observer. “I would love to get some of it.”

Wolfe had earlier pointed out that in other jurisdictions, reporting or misrepresenting of evidence does not happen as court news reporters are trained lawyers.

Pantry charged media houses to be more responsible in their reporting.

During the substantive proceedings, retired assistant commissioner of police Daniel Wray, who is now a government forensic analyst, testified that tests on a Winchester rifle found in the house at Crawle showed that the gun had recently been fired, perhaps even on the day of the incident on May 7, 2003.

Pointing out that the Winchester rifle can fire 7.62mm (M16) cartridges, as well as the .308 cartridges it normally uses, Wray said bullet holes he found on the rear door of one of the rooms of the house could have been made by the Winchester.

Wray also said that bullet holes he found inside the house, towards the outside, could have been made by the Winchester rifle.

“In the front door I saw 10 (bullet) holes of 5.56mm shots in the direction of the outside walls inside through what could be a closed door. Two (bullet) holes of 7.62 mm cartridges in the direction of the inside room towards the outside. My opinion is that the bullets were fired from a 7.62 mm cartridge.”

These bullets could have come from an M16 rifle, Wray told prosecutors. He is yet to be cross-examined.

Detective Sergeant Calbert Davis, who also gave evidence yesterday, testified that at about 7:30 pm on the day of the incident, he received information from Adams that gunmen had been at a particular premises waiting to kill “white men” who worked at a gold mine in Pennants, an area near Crawle.

Adams, according to the witness, said he and other police personnel went to the premises, shouted “Police” and were greeted with gunshots from a house. They returned the fire and about six men were seen running to the rear of the premises.

Davis testified that Adams said after the shooting subsided four persons were found suffering from gunshot wounds.

Davis said he went to Crawle and saw a Hiace mini bus, a CVM television vehicle and a white van at the gate with four persons, including two women, lying in the pick-up dead. They were covered with blood.