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.