A photographer took the stand in the trial of four men accused of taking part in last month?s violence at Wellington Oval, yesterday in Magistrates? Court.

Freelance photographer Ras Mykkal Simons told the court that on April 4 he was at the football game when he heard young women screaming and turned to see what the commotion was.

?The women were grabbing their children,? he said.

Then he described seeing a young man laying on the ground and a crowd of young men gathered around with long knives and machetes.

?One man had a plank of wood,? he said.

?I walked towards the commotion and began to photograph what was going on.?

Mr. Simons told the court he took about 25 pictures of the incident.

There was heavy Police presence yesterday outside the courtroom ? and inside eight prison officers hovered over the four accused. No family members were allowed in the courtroom so they eagerly awaited the exit of the defendants and their lawyers.

Ki-jah Russell Butterfield, 21, of Paget is charged with possession of an offensive weapon (machete) and going armed to a public place in a manner to cause terror.

He is represented by lawyer Elizabeth Christopher.

Kavon Earlstone Smith, 25, of Southampton and Wolde Trott, 21, of Paget, were both charged with possession of an offensive weapon and going armed to a public place with intent to cause terror; they are represented by lawyer Leo Mills.

Jamie Ford, 23, of Warwick was charged with possession of an offensive weapon, going to a public place with intent to cause terror, and assaulting Antoine Anderson. He is represented by Mark Pettingill.

Trott and Smith originally pleaded guilty to the charges against them but on their second court appearance for mention, changed their plea to not guilty.

Ford and Butterfield have denied the charges.

The other four men arrested in connection with the incident will be tried in Supreme Court.

Videotape evidence which was disputed by lawyers in the last court appearance on May 12 was shown again yesterday, while the man who put the videotape footage onto DVD was on the stand.

Many minutes of the footage showed the football game and its slide into violence. The men holding weapons were difficult to make out throughout the video.

Mr. Simon?s photographs were shown to the judge, Magistrate William Francis, and the witness who developed them, Gary Williams, but were not visible to the media. The four defendants eagerly leaned over the dock to view the photographs over the shoulders of their defence counsel.

Shade Subair appeared for the Crown, and was assisted by recently appointed Director of Public Prosecutions, Vinette Graham-Allen. The trial is set to resume on May 18.