By NEWSDAY REPORTER Tuesday, August 25 2009

Briton PETER GREENE left Trinidad on Sunday on a commercial flight after he was given the all-clear by a doctor from the United Kingdom, to fly home.

Meantime, by the time he had landed yesterday in London, the man accused of attempting to murder Greene and his wife, Murium, appeared in the Scarborough Magistrates’ Court, and was again denied bail. Clint Alexis, the accused, was remanded in custody by Magistrate Judy Gordon. He was being represented by defence attorney Larry Williams. The magistrate advised the accused of his right to apply for bail before a judge.

The court was informed that Murium Greene, who along with her husband Peter, had been hospitalised at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex at Mt Hope, following the incident. Murium had since been transferred back to England, while Peter Greene was reported to be still in a semi-conscious state.

However, Newsday confirmed through the British High Commission in Port-of-Spain that Peter Greene was transferred to England on Sunday. Press and Public Affairs Officer at the High Commission, James Dolon, said Greene was “obviously deemed fit enough to leave. Accompanied by a doctor he left for England on a British Airways flight Sunday evening.

Meantime, defence attorney Williams has indicated that a bail application hearing for his client was expected to continue in the Scarborough High Court on Friday.

Greene, 65, had been warded at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope since the attack on him and his wife, Murium, on August 1 at their vacation home in Bacolet, Tobago. The couple are originally from Reading, Berkshire, but they emigrated from Wellington, Somerset, two years ago.

A source at the hospital said a doctor with a UK insurance firm was flown down to Trinidad and it was he who gave the go-ahead for Greene to fly back home on a commercial flight. Murium, 59, left Trinidad on an air-ambulance on August 11, after an emotional goodbye. She has had facial reconstructive surgery in which a steel plate was inserted into her jaw.

The source at Mt Hope said Greene was lucid and had regained movement to the left side of his body.

“From a neurological point of view, he is doing well. He would require after-care treatment when he returns home.

He would have to do dental work and reconstructive repair on the left eye lid, which was injured in the chopping incident, but all-in-all his injuries have healed remarkably,” the source said.

Greene remained in a medically induced coma for some time because of the serious head injuries he sustained in the attack.

Yesterday, relatives and friends of the accused, along with other Argyle villagers staged a silent placard demonstration on Bacolet Street, near the courthouse.

Via their placards they announced that Alexis was innocent, and insisted police had held the wrong man.