THE defence attorney for Andre Thomas in the double murder case of the two missionaries in St Mary in 2016, on Monday sought to sow seeds of doubt, suggesting that investigators used a prior charge to bribe his client.

The attorney, Leroy Equiano, alleged Thomas’s charge of having sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 years was levelled against him, which urged him to speak with investigators about the murders.

The murder victims, Harold Nichols, 53 and Randy Hentzel, 49, were missionaries for the Pennsylvania-based Teams for Medical Missions. They went missing on Saturday, April 30, 2016 after leaving their Tower Isle, St Mary, homes on motorcycles to visit a site where they would be doing charity work the following week.

When they did not return a search party later that day discovered Hentzel’s body lying face down, his green helmet still over his head, with his arms bound “tightly” behind his back by a piece of cloth torn from the green T-shirt in which he was clad. Nichols’ body was found some distance away on the Sunday afternoon.

On Monday, Equiano, in his cross-examination in the Supreme Court of the investigating officer — a deputy superintendent of police — said the police officers had searched Thomas’s house in Albion Mountain in the parish, in which they found a birth certificate, with date of birth January 27, 2000, belonging to his girlfriend, which indicated she was under the legal age to consent to sexual intercourse. After his arrest on June 3, 2016 Thomas then reportedly indicated his desire to speak with the police officer.

The investigator recalled in his testimony on Monday that on June 5 he had recorded a statement from Thomas.

Even though his client had pleaded guilty to the offence, Equiano said despite the birth certificate showing that the girl had already reached 16 years, the lawmen took a statement from his client and “formed the opinion now that he’s having sex with a person under the age of 16”.

But the investigating officer retorted that at the time the statement was recorded Thomas was already charged for having sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 years.

Equiano rebutted by saying, “I’m suggesting to you that’s not true… You handed over that statement that you gave to CISOCA [Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse].”

Explaining, the deputy superintendent of police said, “Sir, that statement I recorded had nothing to do with the investigation. On the fifth of June 2016 Mr Andre Thomas was already charged for the offence of having sex with a person under the age of 16.”

Equiano, in response, said: “You see this CISOCA thing? That is what unuh start using on him fi get information. I’m saying to you, sir, you used the fact that he had given you information about having sex [with] a person under 16, you are now using it to force him to give other information… bribing him to give other information.

“So sir when you saw him on the fifth, this is what you told him: ‘If you tell me all of what you know, they won’t proceed with the charge against you for having sex with a person under 16 [years].’ That’s what you used to bribe him,” Equiano charged.

“No, sir, there was no such conversation,” the police officer answered, remaining steadfast in his position that the prior charge did not influence the murder charges. “Sir, the offence for which Mr Andre Thomas was convicted had nothing to do with this investigation.”

In addition to arguing that investigators attempted to bribe his client, Equiano said Thomas did not bring investigators to the location in Albion Mountain where the bodies were discovered voluntarily. Instead, he said investigators had “demanded” his client’s compliance.

“No, sir,” the police officer denied.

The investigator added that “in my mind” after Thomas took them to the location of the bodies in 2016 he became a suspect.

Before being cross-examined by the defence counsel the lawman read three statements written by the defendant, which were later admitted into evidence.

In one of the statements, signed June 5, 2016, Thomas, who is said to be a construction worker, told investigators that he was at his house when he heard his relative Dwight Henry — who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the missionaries’ murder — confess that he was behind the murders, along with another man.

However, in the other statement dated June 11, 2016 Thomas reportedly said he and Henry killed the man, but participated only because Henry had threatened his life.

“Dwight said him blood thirst,” the police officer told the court, adding that Henry then said Thomas “a chicken out” .

Due to his hesitation to participate Henry reportedly went on to call Thomas an idiot “because [look] how white people beat black people”.

Cross-examination of the deputy superintendent of police is expected to continue on Tuesday.