THE trial of a 21-year-old man accused of possessing an offensive
weapon was interrupted yesterday for technical reasons minutes after
Scotland Today reporter Bernard Ponsonby began giving evidence for the
Crown.
Mr Ponsonby, 29, began telling Sheriff John Morris how he had been
filming a news item in Paisley following publicity last year about the
mounting violence in the town.
He said two people had been slashed and one man stabbed to death
outside a pub called Mr Boston's the weekend before he started making
the film.
He said: ''I was asking youths in the street if they were worried
about the number of young people carrying weapons while my cameraman
filmed.''
Defence lawyer Robert Mitchell then objected when the depute fiscal
Miss Morag McLaughlin said she intended to show an edited video of the
STV programme.
Mr Mitchell said that the video had been edited by journalists and
asked that the full tape be shown to the court.
But the unedited video, which was brought from STV headquarters in
Glasgow during an adjournment, was not compatible with the projector in
court and could not be played.
The case against Mr Terence Cameron, 21, of Alice Street, Paisley, who
is accused of being in possession of an offensive weapon, a knife, was
adjourned until next week, when a new trial date will be fixed.
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