Family Court magistrate Carlisle Greaves yesterday ordered that fingerprints be taken from three boys charged with arson and related offences at the Harrington Sound Primary School in February.

Defence counsels Saul Froomkin, Delroy Duncan and Richard Horseman argued the boys had not been charged with "indictable offences'' and their fingerprints could not be taken.

But Mr. Greaves said the fact that the boys were being tried in the Family Court as required by law, did not change the nature of the offences which fell within the meaning of "indictable offences'' for which fingerprints can be ordered.

Youths to be fingerprinted Defence lawyers also argued that the evidence revealed by the testimony of Det. Insp. Howard Cutts was not sufficient to establish reasonable suspicion in respect of the accused and that it would not be in the interests of justice to order the taking of fingerprints.

Det. Insp. Cutts had told the court in Wednesday's hearing that in one classroom where there was evidence of the fire, the words "Give me what I want and I'll go away'' were written on a blackboard with an obscene drawing.

In front of the blackboard there were a number of footprints some of which were likely made by the person who wrote on the blackboard.

There were also fingerprints and palm impressions on the blackboard which were also likely made by the author of the message on the blackboard.

Police officers then received a number of pairs of shoes reportedly taken from the three defendants. The size and patterns of these shoes matched the footprints in front of the blackboard.

Next, one of the boys attended the burned out school with his mother and Police officers and told Police he and two others, the other two defendants, had been in the school and that one of them had written on the board.

Mr. Greaves said the test he had to apply was whether there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that the accused committed the offences.

He decided that the evidence provided by Det. Insp. Cutts did meet the test and granted the order for the Police to fingerprint the three boys.

The boys will face trial on November 15.

ARSON FIRE FIR