PEOPLE’S National Party (PNP) activist Milton ‘Tony’ Welsh was on Monday refused bail and his retrial for the alleged stabbing death of a man last year scheduled for October, 2007.

Justice Patrick Brooks said that Welsh should remain in police custody, and set an October 22 retrial date.

Welsh, the reputed Brandon Hill, St Andrew area leader, went on trial last October in the Home Circuit Court for the murder of 21-year-old Damion Hussey of Golden Spring, St Andrew on January 15, 2006.

Hussey, who was in his yard, was accused of stoning a bus with supporters of Dr Peter Phillips while it was travelling through Golden Spring following the launch of Phillips’ presidential campaign for leadership of the ruling PNP. He was set upon by a group of men and stabbed several times.

Welsh was pointed out as the man who allegedly stabbed Hussey in the chest several times when he turned himself in to the police 15 days after the incident.

During the trial, Hussey’s aunt, Elaine Gooden, tearfully testified how Welsh slashed to death her nephew, while other men pummelled him as he begged for his life.

But Welsh, in an unsworn statement, said that he was not at the murder scene as he went to Bull Bay with his daughter after leaving Phillips’ campaign launch at the National Arena.

The trial ended in October with a hung jury, as the jurors were unable to reach a verdict even after five hours of deliberations.