College road re-opens following embankment collapse tragedy

The road through Bermuda College where a teacher was killed earlier this year when an embankment wall collapsed was re-opened yesterday.

It was seven weeks to the day since Andrea Bicari died after becoming trapped in her car as she talked on her cell phone in a small car park beneath the embankment on Stonington Avenue.

College security manager Russell Richardson yesterday said the two-way road had re-opened following clean-up efforts and the erection of a 100ft long security fence to safeguard against further erosion of the sandy bank.

Members of the public, however, have been advised that parking will be prohibited along all college roads, and along Stonington Avenue, in particular.

Police have concluded their investigation into the incident and a report is pending.

Engineers and architects, meanwhile, continue to address the issue of the embankment's reconstruction.

Mrs. Bicari, 34, who was the mother of a five-year-old daughter, taught at The Educational Centre (TEC) and was visiting the college to hold a mock exam for some of her students when the wall collapsed.

Mrs. Bicari, lived at Cedar Park Road, Devonshire, with her husband Roan, and their daughter Asha.

Teens in court over $5,000 theft

Two 19-year olds appeared in Magistrates' Court yesterday to plead not guilty to charges of stealing and receiving stolen goods worth $5,000 from the Bank of Butterfield.

Greshona Russia Lodel Gibbons, of Limehouse Lane in Hamilton Parish, had not yet gone through the case with her lawyer Chen Foley when Acting Magistrate Carlisle Greaves charged her with stealing $5,000 from the Bank of Butterfield on February 6 of this year.

Mr. Greaves did not allow her to confer with her lawyer, however, saying his role was to charge her and hear her plea. Gibbons pleaded not guilty, and will reappear for mention on March 19. She was released on bail of $1,000.

Rodrica Cassandra Wilson, of Happy Valley Road in Pembroke, was charged with receiving the $5,000 knowing it had been stolen. She also pleaded not guilty, and like Gibbons was released on $1,000 bail to reappear for mention on March 19.

Homeless man charged with robbery

A homeless man was brought before the courts on Monday charged with robbing a Sandys resident at knifepoint last week.

Denton Jermaine Parris, 31, of no fixed abode, was not asked to enter a plea to the charge of robbery with a knife, as the case will be dealt with in the Supreme Court.

He is accused of stealing $150 from the resident on Wednesday of last week.

However, Parris pleaded not guilty to a separate, previous charge of stealing $388 from a Sandy's resident in October of last year.

Parris was remanded into custody, to reappear before the court for mention on March 19.

Thief seizes the moment - and some cash

A culprit took advantage of a retailer's break to steal an undisclosed amount of cash from an unguarded register on Tuesday afternoon.

Police were called to the Grotto Bay Hotel at 3.30 p.m. on Tuesday where the complainant stated she had left the gift shop to go outside for two minutes. When she returned, however, she noticed the cash had disappeared from the register.

Another hotel employee noticed a man leaving the gift shop at about the same time the money went missing. This man is described as brown-skinned and heavy-set.

Not guilty plea to offensive weapon charge

A man is to go on trial next month after pleading not guilty to being in possession of an offensive weapon.

Dimetri Stephen Robinson, 24, of Anchorage View Road, St. George's, pleaded guilty in Magistrates Court this week to violently resisting a Police officer, but pleaded not guilty to having the weapon on Saturday in the Old Town.

He was released on bail and ordered to reappear before the court on April 23 for trial.