Lynette Pearson (16 April 1950 - 11 December 2001), known professionally as Lynette Lithgow), was a

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

-born,

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

-based newsreader and journalist who is best remembered for her career as a newsreader for

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

. Lithgow's first media job was as a broadcaster for

Radio Television Brunei Radio Television Brunei ( ms, Radio Televisyen Brunei, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: راديو تيليۏيشين بروني, officially abbreviated as RTB) is the national public broadcasting, public broadcaster of Brunei. Radio Brunei made its first ...

during the 1970s. During the 1980s, she moved to Britain. After working as a presenter for

Midlands Today ''Midlands Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the West Midlands. It was launched in 1964 and is presented by Mary Rhodes, Nick Owen, Elizabeth Glinka, Rebecca Wood and Shefali Oza. Overview ''Midlands Today'' is produc ...

and a continuity announcer for

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

, Lithgow moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

as a newsreader for the national BBC News in 1988. Lithgow joined the BBC's world television service on its launch in 1991 and also presented BBC 2's Newsview. Lithgow was the first BBC newsreader to announce the resignation of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

around 9:45 AM, interrupting an edition of People Today, on 22 November 1990. Lithgow quit the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

in 1996 upon gaining a law degree from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. She subsequently moved to the business news channel

CNBC Asia CNBC Asia is a pay television business channel based in Singapore. A subsidiary of NBCUniversal, it is the Asian service of CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel). Its programmes originate from Singapore. It was officially opening ceremony at ...

(based in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

), where she worked until her death in Trinidad in December 2001.

Murder

Lithgow was murdered, along with her 83-year-old mother, Maggie Lee, and her British brother-in-law, John Cropper, at the family home in

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

. The family had just enjoyed a tea party when bandits struck. The family was found with their hands bound and their throats cut. A detective who was granted anonymity due to a rule forbidding police from contacting the media during an investigation called the murder scene "the most brutal and grisly" he had ever seen, adding in a statement to the BBC, "I have visited a number of scenes in my career, but I never see anything as brutal or grisly as that." While earlier reports stated that a "group of bandits" had ambushed the home, only two men were ever arrested and charged for their involvement in the crime: Lester Pittman and Daniel Agard. Both were convicted of murder, and both were immediately sentenced to death in 2004, as murder convictions come with a mandatory death sentence in Trinidad and Tobago. After repeatedly appealing the sentences, both Pittman and Agard had their sentences overturned in March 2010 due to the fact that the law in Trinidad and Tobago prohibited the executions of prisoners who had spent more than five years on death row. In December 2013, both were re-sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison.

Personal life

Lynette Lithgow was married twice and had two children from her first marriage. Her second marriage, from 1998 until her death, was to Dominic Pearson. In 2005, the Harvard Kennedy School established a fund in Lithgow's honor to support students interested in journalism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lithgow, Lynette 1950 births 2001 deaths Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United Kingdom BBC newsreaders and journalists Murdered journalists Trinidad and Tobago murder victims Violence against women in Trinidad and Tobago