The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A HEARING has been pushed back for a doctor at the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre who reportedly defied a court order.

Dr Nelson Clarke, Chief of Medical Staff at Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre, will now appear before Senior Justice Jon Isaacs on August 6 as opposed to July 20.

Dr Clarke did not turn up on July 5 for an appearance before the judge to explain why he should not be held in contempt for failing to have a report surrendered to the court as requested.

The physician, reportedly out of the country around his original appearance date, faces another possible contempt charge if he is unable to provide an appropriate excuse for failing to appear before Senior Justice Jon Isaacs when the first summons was issued.

Dr Clarke was issued a summons by Justice Isaacs to appear before him  for his response to prison chief Dr Elliston Rahming’s explanation that it was not the prison’s fault for the court’s order being defied concerning 46-year-old Richard Gibson of Sunshine Park.

Gibson is accused of murdering his 15-year-old daughter Richa Gibson. Last October, the teenager was stabbed to death at her home in Sunshine Park during an argument.

When the 46-year-old father appeared before Justice Isaacs in April to be arraigned in the Supreme Court, he said he was suffering from a mental disability.

Justice Isaacs deferred the arraignment and ordered a psychiatric evaluation of the accused.

On July 3, prosecutor Paul Jones told the judge that numerous written requests to the prison superintendent had not been followed, but he had received a letter from the prison doctor the previous day that the accused was on daily medication.

The following day, July 4, when Justice Isaacs asked for an explanation as to why his April 13 order had been disregarded, Dr Rahming said his agency had complied with the court’s request in April though that request was only a copy of the original sent to the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre.

Dr Rahming produced documents to support his claims that, according to the documents, Gibson was seen by a psychiatrist on April 18, five days after the court’s order.

Justice Isaacs asked prosecutor Roger Thompson, representing the Crown in the summons, if the prosecution received a copy of the psychiatrist’s report. Mr Thompson said no. A summons was then issued for Dr Clarke to appear to explain the hold up on the report.

On July 5, the SRC chief of medical staff was not present. Justice Isaacs walked into court and inquired on his whereabouts from Mr Thompson.

The prosecutor said he had personally spoken with the physician the previous day and an hour before court started when Dr Clarke told him he was on his way.

Mr Thompson asked the judge for a five minute adjournment so that he could contact Dr Clarke.

Instead, the judge issued another summons for the doctor.