BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
The officer in charge of the Henderson Police station has been summoned to the High Court.
This is so that the officer can explain to the Courts why summons to witnesses were not served when ample time was given to the police to serve them.
Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer made the orders yesterday after prosecution informed court that the trial will not be possible due to summons not being served to witnesses; hence prosecution sought an adjournment.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Andrew Kelesi told court their witness liaison officer had sent the summons for the witnesses three weeks ago to the Henderson Police; as they are the ones to serve the summons on the witnesses who will testify during trial.
This is in regards to the case involving the death of a man at Henderson on dates between July 6 and 7 in 2019, East Honiara opposite the Solomon Star area.
The trial was supposed to commence yesterday before Sir Albert, however, the trial did not proceed because prosecution witnesses were not available.
Kelesi said last week when they made a follow-up on the summons with the Henderson police to confirm if the summons were served, they were being told that the summons were lost, but later on, when another officer went to one of the rooms at the police station, the officer found that the summons were there and were never served to the witnesses.
“This is not the first time they encounter issues like this with the Henderson police. There were some occasions that Prosecution has to reprint the summons and send them back to Henderson police either because they could not be located or lost,” Kelesi told court yesterday.
Prosecution was anticipating that all witnesses would be ready as enough time was given to them to serve the summons.
