State pros­e­cu­tors at the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions on Friday raised sev­er­al safe­ty is­sues they en­counter at the mag­is­trates’ court which was de­scribed as a “pow­der keg of dis­as­ter.”

They claim they re­ceive threats from pris­on­ers and their rel­a­tives and some of them are now ac­com­pa­nied by armed body­guards to and from the court.

As­sis­tant Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Tri­cia Hudlin-Coop­er raised these mat­ters yes­ter­day as she and oth­er stake­hold­ers ap­peared be­fore a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on Fi­nance and Le­gal Af­fairs look­ing in­to the ad­e­qua­cy of mag­is­trate’s courts’ fa­cil­i­ties.

The Com­mit­tee was chaired by Se­nior Coun­sel Sophia Chote at the J Hamil­ton Mau­rice Room, Par­lia­ment Build­ing, Port-of-Spain.

The pur­pose of the meet­ing was geared to­wards eval­u­at­ing the con­di­tions at mag­is­trates courts.

Stake­hold­ers from the Ju­di­cia­ry, T&T Po­lice Ser­vice and Of­fice of the DPP ap­peared be­fore the com­mit­tee.

Com­mit­tee mem­ber Lester Hen­ry ques­tioned Hudlin-Coop­er about con­cerns raised where pros­e­cu­tors share the same toi­lets and en­trances to court build­ings.

Hudlin-Coop­er ad­mit­ted that such a sit­u­a­tion was an ex­treme risk for at­tor­neys as they go about their du­ties.

“We have to be cog­nisant as pros­e­cu­tors. We are not the most liked in the court by the ac­cused. It is no se­cret that we’ve had the un­for­tu­nate cir­cum­stances of the as­sas­si­na­tion of Ms (Dana) See­ta­hal. It’s no se­cret that pros­e­cu­tors have been threat­ened.”

Next Sat­ur­day would mark the fifth an­niver­sary of See­ta­hal’s mur­der. See­ta­hal, a state pros­e­cu­tor was gunned down in Wood­brook.

Hudlin-Coop­er said, “bold threats” are is­sued to pros­e­cu­tors via their cell phones, to their faces, or it would be done open­ly in the precincts of the court by the ac­cused.

“The ac­cused would get oth­er peo­ple to act on their be­half,” Huldin-Coop­er al­so not­ed.

“They are de­ter­mined to do what­ev­er it takes to get this pros­e­cu­tor off the mat­ter. They were threat­ened, fol­lowed and they re­ceive mes­sages on their phone. We have at­tor­neys who have armed guards,” she said.

Hudlin-Coop­er said those who make the threats would tell the pros­e­cu­tors they know where they live, iden­ti­fy the schools their chil­dren at­tend and where their fam­i­ly mem­bers work to in­stil fear.

Chote asked if this was hap­pen­ing to po­lice pros­e­cu­tors as well, to which the com­mit­tee was told yes.

“All this is hap­pen­ing like a pow­der keg of dis­as­ter,” Hudlin-Coop­er said.

She said even though peo­ple en­ter­ing courts are searched some man­age to make their way in­side with “makeshift weapon­ry.”

Such in­di­vid­u­als use the same toi­lets, cramped cor­ri­dors, lone en­trance and court’s carpark as pros­e­cu­tors which ex­pos­es State at­tor­neys to great risk.

She al­so point­ed out that some pros­e­cu­tors al­so trav­el long dis­tances to do cas­es with­out be­ing pro­vid­ed with a risk al­lowance. This is­sue is be­fore the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion (SRC), she said.

Hudlin-Coop­er said while the SRC need­ed to do a job eval­u­a­tion for the risk al­lowance the threats con­tin­ue.

“It is some­thing we have raised and con­tin­ue to raise in terms of safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of pros­e­cu­tors.”

Hudlin-Coop­er cit­ed the Ari­ma Mag­is­trates Court as a prime ex­am­ple where pros­e­cu­tors are rel­a­tive­ly un­safe.

She said while the toi­let fa­cil­i­ties are on the first floor, the court­rooms are on the third.

In or­der for pros­e­cu­tors to en­ter the court­rooms, she said they would have to walk through a crowd­ed cor­ri­dor not know­ing what to ex­pect.

At the San­gre Grande Mag­is­trates Court, Hudlin-Coop­er said, the main en­trance has to be used by the ac­cused, fam­i­ly and friends of the ac­cused and the gen­er­al pub­lic.

In the com­pound of the Rio Claro Mag­is­trates Court, Hudlin-Coop­er said there was a shoot­ing which re­sult­ed in the pros­e­cu­tor and po­lice of­fi­cer “duck­ing for cov­er” to safe­guard life and limb.

Chote agreed that the sit­u­a­tion was a pow­der keg of dis­as­ter as she en­quired what would be a so­lu­tion to the on­go­ing prob­lem.

Hudlin-Coop­er said they have al­ready out­lined their is­sues to the au­thor­i­ties.

Though they some­times re­quest a sep­a­rate en­try for pros­e­cu­tors, not all courts would be ac­com­mo­dat­ing based on its ad­min­is­tra­tion’s pol­i­cy.