WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — A man who was in custody in 2014 at the time of the deadly beating allegedly meted out to Mario Deane has identified Deane as the person he had referred to, during his testimony on Tuesday, as “the new prisoner”.

The identification was made in court on Wednesday from a photo shown on a document.

“It looks like Mario Deane. It is the prisoner that was brought in by Ms Stewart, Indian and Short Man, and put in cell number one on the first floor and later cell number four after returning the second time,” stated the witness.

The man, who was convicted of a crime, is the crown’s eighth witness in the trial of three cops who are before the Westmoreland Circuit Court.

On Tuesday, he gave a chilling account of hearing Deane being beaten by inmates in his cell on August 3, 2014.

READ: Witness who was on Mario Deane’s cell block in 2014 recounts beating

District Constable Marlon Grant, Corporal Elaine Stewart and Constable Juliana Clevon are all charged with manslaughter and misconduct in a public office.

During court on Wednesday, the witness also testified that he attended a witness parade on September 13, where he identified Short Man (Grant) and Indian (Clevon). He also told the court that following the August 3 incident, he spoke with the three cops, former Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams and a government minister.

The allegations in the case are that Deane was arrested for possession of a ganja spliff and placed in custody, where he was brutally beaten. He sustained severe injuries to his brain, which left him in a coma. He died three days later at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.

It is alleged that the three cops were on duty at the police station when Deane was beaten. It is further alleged that Corporal Stewart, who has an additional charge of perverting the course of justice, instructed that the cell in which the attack took place be cleaned before the arrival of investigators from the Independent Commission of Investigations.

— Anthony Lewis