SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — The defence team representing three cops on trial in the Mario Deane case on Wednesday attempted to discredit a Crown witness who, in testifying a day earlier, alleged that they treated Deane harshly before he died and ignored calls for help as he was being beaten inside his cell.

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

On Wednesday the witness, the eighth for the Crown, completed his riveting testimony-in-chief inside the Westmoreland Circuit Court, paving the way for cross-examination by Martin Thomas, the lawyer representing Stewart and Grant. Thomas began by asking the witness if he had lied in his testimony, to which the witness replied that, to the best of his knowledge, he had told the truth.

Thomas then reminded him about a statement he gave the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom), in which he said the three cops took the new prisoner to cell four — instead of cell one — when Stewart made the utterance, “Ah dead him fi dead.” Thomas asked the witness if he remembered saying that Stewart was at the entrance to the cell block and not the grille door to the cell.

“No sir, I did not say that,” the witness replied.

Thomas then asked the witness if he would recognise the statement if he should be shown a copy. The witness replied in the affirmative. The statement, dated August 11, 2014, was shown to the witness.

“The signature looks like mine, but I am not sure,” the witness replied after looking at the document.

The witness also said he did not recall where he was or to whom at Indecom the statement was given.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the witness was shown a photo in a document, which he identified as depicting the individual he referred to as the new prisoner during his testimony on Tuesday.

“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.

He also told the court that he attended a witness parade on September 13, where he identified Short Man as Grant and Indian as Clevon.

The witness said 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 on August 3, 2014. He sustained severe injuries to his brain, which left him in a coma. He died three days later at 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 Indecom.