morning raid on Roosters restaurant last January were ushered around the Court Street crime scene yesterday to get a better sense of the robbery.

The site visit had been approved yesterday morning by Puisne Judge the Hon.

Mr. Justice Meerabux after defence attorney Mr. Archie Warner asked that the two man-10 woman jury be allowed to tour the crime scene in an effort to grasp fully the robbery's sequence of events.

Mr. Warner's client, Roger Eugene Lightbourn, is accused of making off with Roosters' cash register in the early hours of January 28 and fleeing with a second man down Dundonald Street, where their cycle tipped over twice after nearly colliding with a pursuing taxi.

He was later apprehended behind Emmanuel Baptist Church. Lightbourn has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Mr. Warner argued yesterday that the site visit should take place at night to better recreate the morning in question, but both the judge and Crown Counsel Mr. Peter DeJulio objected to that request.

"I'm opposed to it,'' Mr. DeJulio told the judge. "The jury members already have to sit here all day. It would be unduly onerous and unfair to expect them to come back at night.

"Also,'' he added, "I think it may be injurious to have the jury become indirect witnesses. A night visit would make them witnesses in the case.'' Justice Meerabux, who commented on the "very unusual night dealings of the area,'' agreed, saying: "I reject the night aspect, but I rule that we will have a site visit.'' Among the various sites that jury members examined under a Police escort were the restaurant in which the robbery occurred, the Spinning Wheel nightclub in front of which the cab driver who allegedly pursued Lightbourn took pursuit and the Emmanuel Baptist churchyard in which Lightbourn was eventually arrested.

The jury was joined on the tour by the judge, the court clerk and the prosecuting attorney. Lightbourn, who was handcuffed to a Police officer throughout, followed close at hand, conferring silently with his lawyer. The assembly returned to the courtroom at around 3.00 p.m.

Earlier in the day, a former prostitute and drug addict who continued to give testimony she began on Tuesday got into a heated debate with her examiners over cocaine "highs'' and the value of community service.

Diane Young, who was working on Dundonald Street the morning of the robbery, had testified that she saw a cyclebound Lightbourn roar onto the street with a second man, tip over twice after being cut off by the taxi and then run into the churchyard.

Yesterday, she became visibly angry when she felt that Mr. Warner was asking her to repeat herself.

"This is a joke,'' she said. "I don't have time to sit here and play these legal games. And I don't appreciate being asked the same questions 10,000 times. I just want to say that I am here by subpoena and I don't feel like being here. I want that put on record.'' Justice Meerabux responded to Young by saying: "Take your time. What you are doing is performing a duty, a community service. Just take your time.'' But the woman became even more inflamed when Mr. Warner questioned her sobriety both in court and on the morning in question.

"I suggest to you that your brain was foggy and you don't know what you saw,'' Mr. Warner said to her.

"You're suggesting wrong,'' Young replied. "When you're on cocaine you know exactly what you're doing. Your brain is not the same on cocaine as it is on alcohol.'' "Are you on drugs now?'' Mr. Warner persisted.

"No, I am not on drugs,'' Young testified before finally storming out of the courtroom.

The second witness, cab driver Eliston Bradshaw, said that on January 28 he pursued two men on Court Street after hearing a woman scream and caused them to crash their bike on Dundonald Street. He identified one of the men as Lightbourn.

The trial continues today.

AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME -- A Police Officer momentarily halts traffic on Court Street yesterday as jurors in the Roosters restaurant robbery trial examine the site of last January's hold-up.