Trinidad to hang two for BBC woman's murder
Date: 16-Jul-04
Country: SPAIN
One of condemned men, Daniel Agard, is the nephew of the murdered journalist, Lynette Lithgow Pearson, who worked for the BBC in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Agard is the grandson of Pearson's mother, Maggie Lee, who was also killed.
Pearson, Lee and agricultural consultant John Cropper were bound with wire, hacked with a machete and had their throats slashed at Cropper's home on the outskirts of Port of Spain in 2001.
Agard, 21, and Lester Pitman, 26, were convicted and sentenced this week after an eight-week trial.
Pearson, 52, lived in France. She and her 83-year-old mother were visiting Cropper, 59, a British citizen, in their native Trinidad.
Agard was charged after he was videotaped withdrawing money with Cropper's bank card. His fingerprints were found on a jewelry box in Cropper's bedroom.
Pitman was charged after a taxi driver told police Pitman hired him to transport items stolen from Cropper's home.
Cropper and his wife, Angela, a retired United Nations officer, ran the Cropper Foundation, which helped budding writers and promoted environmental awareness.
Trinidad carried out its last hanging in 1999. The London Privy Council, which acts as the highest court of appeal for the Caribbean nation, reversed an earlier decision and ruled last week that Trinidad could make death sentences mandatory for convicted murderers.
