TAFARI Clarke, the complainant in the corruption trial of Superintendent Harry Daley, said yesterday that he was not easily intimidated but that he was afraid of Daley, whom he described as a “dangerous man” who had both gunmen and members of the constabulary under his control.

Clarke, a St Catherine businessman, made the comment during re-examination from prosecutor Dirk Harrison in the Corporation Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.

“Mr Daley could intimidate me. He has all the gunmen them on both sides and the police man dem. You have all the right to be afraid of Mr Daley. Mr Daley is a dangerous man,” Clarke said, before defence counsel Valerie Neita Robertson rose to make an objection.

Neita Robertson had earlier played a recording of Clarke bragging to a taxi operator that he cannot be intimidated.

Clarke, who was deported from England in 2007, also rejected suggestions from Neita Robertson that he had reported that Daley was collecting protection money from him so that he and his girlfriend could be placed under the witness protection programme and sent overseas.

“One of the… reward [you got] is to go back to foreign for the first time since you were deported,” Neita Robertson suggested to which Clarke responded, “That’s not true.”

“One of the rewards you got was to pay your rent from [Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin] Felice,” Neita Robertson suggested.

“No, that’s a lie,” Clarke shot back.

“I’m suggesting to you that you used the system to get yourself and your baby mother abroad. That’s what this thing is all about,” Neita strongly suggested, but Clarke again rejected the suggestion.

Neita Robertson said that at the time he reported Daley to Felice at the Anti Corruption Branch, he called a cousin named Dwayne to say that he had found a way to “get back to foreign”, asking him (Dwayne) if he “wanted to come”.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Clarke maintained.

Clarke had in February last year reported to the police that Daley had, since 2007, been taking money from him on a monthly basis to provide protection from a man who wanted to extort money from his (Clarke’s) family who operates a plaza in Ewarton, St Catherine.

The report set in train a covert operation which culminated with Daley’s arrest on July 31, 2008 during a sting operation in which he was recorded collecting $15,000 in marked bills from Clarke at the Kingston Mall, downtown Kingston.

The defence is, however, contending that Daley was merely collecting money owed to him by Clarke’s uncle, who is now deceased.

But in the video of Daley’s arrest that was played in court yesterday, the senior cop could be heard telling the police, who were searching him, that he had “just collected $15,000 from Coffee Tea brother” to take to him in Spanish Town.

The video shows what appears to be a magazine clip being taken from one of Daley’s pockets.

The trial continues today.