JUSTICE Dawn Gregory and a mixed jury at the Demerara Assizes are trying 19-year-old labourer, Roger Pilgrim, also called ‘Charlie Pants’, for the murder of Shane Rowley on January 22, 2011.

Prosecutrix, Miss Natasha Backer, is expected to call her last witness today before closing the case for the prosecution.

Earlier in the trial witnesses testified about a family row in the area and a policeman tendered a caution statement by the accused in which he had admitted stabbing Shane who had allegedly struck his mother and beat him with a chain on his back.

Defence lawyer, Mr. Huckumchand did not object to the confession statement but later pointed out that he was pursuing a defence of self-defence.

The prosecution led by Counsels Natasha Backer and Mercedes Thompson tendered the voluntary confession in evidence.

The particulars of the offence state that Roger Pilgrim had on January 22nd, 2011, when he was 18-years-old, murdered Shane Rowley, a teenager.

According to a confession statement which Inspector Singh said the accused had voluntarily given to him after being cautioned, the accused was asleep that morning at his Sophia home when his small brother awoke him and told him to look outside.

The accused said in his statement that he looked outside and noted that the neighbours were in conflict.

The accused said that his brother, Sherwin, had a burst head and neighbours were in their yard. The accused said further that he suspected that something was wrong between Sherwin and Shane and therefore he told his mother to go and find out what was happening.

The accused, in his statement, said he saw Shane push his mother. He went up to find out what was the story when Shane lashed him on the back with a chain. He looked around for a piece of wood but found instead a long, black-handle knife on Shane’s step.

“Me pick it up and Shane attacked me and me bore he pon he neck and pon he left side with de knife to defend meh self. And me see blood running down pon Shane and Shane fell down. Me left home and me throw it in the bushes in front of me house by de dam. I made this statement of my own free will,” Pilgrim said in his statement according to Detective Constable Singh.
The trial is continuing.
Written By George Barclay