‘No one was in my house’

Dr Claudette Clarke, the widow of slain businessman Keith Clarke, was yesterday accused of lying and of putting on a show by throwing temper tantrums when cornered in a lie to avoid answering questions directly.

The suggestions came following several loud outbursts from the seemingly weary and frustrated 65-year-old retired senior education officer as she doubled down on her declaration that no gunmen were hiding in her basement on the day her husband was murdered and rejected suggestions that she was being untruthful.

Dr Clarke, in one of her emotionally charged moments, shouted out, “There was no person down there, nobody in my house!”, moments before apologising to the court after attorney-at law-Linton Gordon suggested that persons were in her house on the night her husband was killed.

There was another outburst from Dr Clarke when Gordon told her that she could not definitively say that there was nobody other than her family in the house that night.

“No, sir. I don’t accept it!,” she shouted. “I cannot accept it. I said it over and over -no one was in my house.”

Both Gordon and his colleague, Peter Champagnie, KC, via suggestions, accused the witness of being dodgy during their fiery cross-examination in the Home Circuit Court where soldiers, lance corporals Greg Tingling, Odel Buckle,y and Private Arnold Henry are being tried for Clarke’s May 2010 murder.

The senior lawyers grilled the witness about testimony in her evidence-in-chief, which contradicted her evidence during cross-examination, the preliminary hearing before the trial, her affidavit, as well as a statement to the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) and about making false evidence.

Window grille

Gordon, during his cross-examination, asked Dr Clarke why she had lied to the court about her husband using a window grille to climb up and down the closet on the night he was killed.

Clarke, in response, acknowledged that the window had not yet been grilled and explained that when she gave her answer, she was thinking about the present set-up of the window and had made a mistake.

“I was not lying. I thought it was there,” she said.

“So the evidence you are giving to this court is something you think up?” Gordon asked. “What else have you given as evidence that you thought up or think up?”

“I can’t say,” Dr Clarke replied.

He then asked her if she had ever given evidence that she saw her husband firing at the police and soldiers that night.

Stressing that she had not sene him firing, Dr Clarke admitted that she said in an affidavit that he used his gun and fired in defence of his family but said it after seeing a report in the news that a policeman or soldier had been injured in the incident.

“Whenever you are caught lying, you get into an acting mode of being in a temper and being pressured,” Gordon suggested.

“Sir, I am no actor. I never did acting. I did dancing,” she replied and apologised for her behaviour, noting that the situation was traumatic and difficult for her and that she was only human.

Earlier in the trial, Dr Clarke said she assumed that he had fired as he had left the room with his licensed firearm and told her that he would not allow criminals to come and kill his family.

Gordon was also questioned about her husband’s entry into the house on the night of the shooting.

Dr Clarke, in her evidence-in-chief, recalled that when her husband arrived home, she was already in bed and that he came into the bedroom, enquiring about dinner.

However, asked if she was certain that he came in through the front door that night, she said she knew because she heard the front door open and was standing up and saw him walking down the passage to get to the bedroom.

“But you said you were in bed,” Gordon said.

“Yes, but I got up when I heard the door,” Dr Clarke responded.

Pointing out that she had never mentioned getting up or standing up looking, Gordon asked if the two versions differed, to which Dr Clarke, repeated, “I was in bed but I got up”.

Gordon then suggested that she was changing her story, but she disagreed.

He also told her that she was not being truthful about what happened to which she responded by saying that she had nothing to hide and that she and her husband were law-abiding citizens who were never involved with criminals.

Meanwhile, earlier under cross-examination, Clarke denied that she had lied to the court when she testified that she had not seen her husband with anything in his hand when he was shot and fell to the floor.

Champagnie suggested, pointing Clarke to a transcript of the preliminary hearing, in which she indicated that she could not see her husband when he fell based on her position.

But Dr Clarke maintained that she did not see him with anything in his hand.

She also rejected a suggestion that she had lied about her husband being shot with his back turned to the police.

Champagnie told her it was a lie because at the time of the shooting, she was in the bathroom,

“No, sir!” she shouted. “That is not true!”

The 63-year-old chartered accountant was shot 21 times during the raid at his home by members of the security forces in search of then fugitive Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who was wanted by United States authorities for drug and gunrunning offences.

Gordon will continue his cross-examination today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com