A man who admitted lying under oath during a shooting trial told the Supreme Court that he wanted to find “some sort of peace” after being threatened.

Speaking under cross-examination yesterday, Lavon Thomas told the court: “I was a witness to a shooting. After that, I had another attempt on my life. After that, I had threats from [Dujon] Reid-Anderson. After that I had further threats and the September 2014 trial. I didn’t get a lot of support from the authorities. At that time, I had enough.”

The court previously heard that Mr Thomas was targeted in a 2012 shooting outside Shine’s Nightclub, but was able to flee to Front Street and escape injury. In January of 2014, Mr Thomas gave evidence in a Supreme Court trial in which Devon Hewey was a defendant. While that trial ended in a mistrial, a retrial was scheduled to take place in September of last year.

Before the trial could begin, however, he said he spoke with Mr Reid-Anderson — a friend associated with Mr Hewey — about the case and potentially changing his evidence.

He also testified that he received threatening voice messages from Mr Reid-Anderson and later agreed to meet with lawyer Kamel Worrell, who was representing Mr Hewey.

During the meeting — which was recorded by Mr Worrell — Mr Thomas alleged that the lawyer influenced him to change his description of the suspect.

Mr Hewey, Mr Worrell and Mr Reid-Anderson have each denied charges of conspiring to defeat justice.

As the trial continued yesterday, Mr Worrell cross-examined Mr Thomas about their meeting. Going over a transcript of the meeting, Mr Worrell suggested to Mr Thomas that he had asked the witness how he would be able to say the suspect was not Mr Hewey. He further suggested that Mr Thomas had responded that he had known Mr Hewey from the St Monica’s Road area and could say that it was not him.

Mr Worrell asked: “You would agree that the basis of the conversation is following from where you have already told me that you could say it wasn’t Mr Hewey on the bike based on what you know?”

Mr Thomas responded that he interpreted that section of the conversation to be Mr Worrell suggesting to him that his description of the suspect could be changed.

The witness, however, accepted that he had already described the suspect as being “of medium build” and that he had visited St Monica’s Road in both a police interview and the January 2014 trial.

Mr Worrell also suggested that Mr Thomas had decided to give false evidence before the meeting took place, and that he had arranged to speak with Mr Hewey on that basis. Mr Thomas responded that he was already frightened by both a second attempt on his life and the threatening messages from Mr Reid-Anderson.

“Before I met with Mr Worrell and spoke with Mr Hewey I was already talking with Mr Reid-Anderson about the case,” he said. “Yes, I was scared because, as I said, after the shooting there was another attempt. If talking to Mr Hewey through Mr Reid-Anderson to find some sort of peace so I can live life comfortable, then I made the decision to do that. I made the decision to speak with Mr Worrell and present false information in the September 2014 trial.”

He added that he agreed to speak with Mr Hewey because he believed it could be clearer than communicating through Mr Reid-Anderson.

Mr Worrell also noted a section of the transcript in which Mr Thomas remarked he had “no respect or loyalty for the Queen”, asking if that played a factor in his decision to give false evidence.

The witness responded that it was not, adding: “Personally, I don’t know the Queen.”