The trial of former Policeman, Saleem Tony Bukhari, accused of manslaughter after failing to aid his girlfriend after her overdose, will finally go ahead today after years of delay.

Royal Gazette journalist Liz Cadell died after taking 150 aspirin on May 31, 1997, at the home the British couple shared in Harvey Hill Road, Smiths.

Bukhari was charged with manslaughter in June 1998 and his lawyer Delroy Duncan lawyer failed to have the charges thrown out a year later. However, at the June 1999 hearing Justice Norma Wade-Miller ruled that the details of the alleged crime should be read to the defendant and that the wording on the indictment should be changed.

Bukhari then denied: failing to provide the "necessities of life'' to Ms Cadell, which caused her death; failing in his duty as a result of their long-term relationship to provide the necessities of life; manslaughter after "undertaking to advise'' Ms Cadell on a dangerous or life-threatening matter and by having "reasonable skill'' he failed to provide the same reasonable care in that advice; manslaughter that after assisting Ms Cadell he failed to provide the same reasonable care in that assistance; A trial date was set for November 15, 1999, but was postponed due to the unavailability of an expert witness.

Bukhari served in the Bermuda Police Service from 1990 to the summer of 1997 when he was dismissed.

Ms Cadell, 33, originally hailed from Newbury in Berkshire. She arrived on the island in 1989 to work as a reporter at the Bermuda Sun.