Two key Crown witnesses to the beating that killed the Cooper twins did not give evidence during the high-profile trial ? because they were not in Bermuda.

can reveal today that Jevon Scraders and Lindon Bartrum both gave Police statements about bloody scenes they saw unfold in the ground floor flat at Crown Hill Lane last March.

But after giving accounts to murder squad detectives, both Scraders and Bartrum left the country.

The two were mentioned several times during the trial and were referred to in detailed accounts given by two eyewitnesses who did take the stand, Gladwyn Cann and Devario Whitter. Cann and Whitter were also with the twins and their killers Kenneth Burgess and Dennis Robinson at the ground floor flat on the fateful night.

But despite Police efforts to track them down and bring them to court, neither Scraders or Bartrum gave evidence during the four-week trial.

It is understood Bartrum is currently in Jamaica after leaving Bermuda in the middle of last year. And sources say Scraders is in America and is believed to be living with relatives.

A senior officer in the Cooper twins? investigation, Detective Inspector Jerome Laws, travelled to America mid-way through the trial in an attempt to bring back Scraders.

This trip by the detective was a clear sign of the importance placed on the two ?stayaway? Crown Hill Lane eyewitness by the authorities, but Det. Insp. Laws flew home empty handed.understands the statements of both Scraders and Bartrum support the key evidence the jury heard from Cann and Whitter.

Trial Judge, Chief Justice Richard Ground, told the jury in the case not to speculate on what the pair might have said if they had appeared in court.

The two eyewitnesses who did give evidence played a vital role in proving the Crown?s case. But their accounts came in for criticism from defence lawyers, who pointed out what they said were inconsistencies to the jury.

Scraders, nicknamed Popeye, and Bartrum, also known as Springer, were part of the group that travelled with the twins from Burgess? Elliott Street gambling den to a ground floor flat at his Crown Hill Lane complex, Devonshire, in the early hours of March 13, 2005.

Prosecutors said the group was under the impression they were going to Ambassador?s nightclub when Bartrum, Scraders and Jahmil got into Burgess? green jeep. Jahmal and Cann got into Robinson?s white van. Instead of the club, they all ended up at Crown Hill Lane.

Before he fled in fear, Cann said he saw Burgess, nicknamed ?Shoddy?, start to attack the twins and accuse them of mugging his ?old man?.

Whitter ? more importantly ? said he saw more, witnessing the frenzied baseball bat attack that left blood on the walls of Burgess? apartment, evidence later supported by DNA results.

When Burgess started to beat the twins, Cann said Bartrum, Springer and Whitter were all in the room ?just standing there?, not helping, as the violence escalated. According to Cann this violence ?came out of the blue?.

Unemployed Whitter was also at the gambling den with his cousins, the twins, on the night they disappeared. The 22-year-old, nicknamed Vavat, told how he visited the den about five times a week ? and said he saw Burgess there every time.

Unlike Cann, Whitter stayed in the ground floor flat long enough to witness Burgess pull out an aluminium baseball bat from a pile of junk in the flat, which was under renovation.

Like Cann, however, he said nobody tried to help the twins. Whitter admitted he was too scared to intervene.

As savage blows rained down on Jahmal?s head, arms and legs and blood sprayed against the wall he was crouching against, Whitter said he heard the ghoulish ?tinging? of the weapon ringing through the flat.

Jahmil was drunk and had already been punched to the floor by Burgess, in a blow that knocked him unconscious and forced him to stumble into a corner. He was then struck on the legs with the bat. Whitter said Burgess, who was wearing a black linen suit, removed his shirt as the assault gathered momentum.

Robinson was standing ?right at the door? at the time, and it was closed, the jury heard.

Whitter, Scraders and Bartrum left the badly injured twins in the room after Burgess told Robinson to give the group a lift to Ambassador?s in his white van. When they arrived at the club, Whitter said Robinson was going back for Burgess in his van, in a move prosecutors said proved he knew Burgess? intentions.

Whitter, the last man to tell the court he saw the twins alive, said he was unsure if Jahmil was conscious. Jahmal, however, was ?all messed up?.

Patchy details of the murky underworld links between the witnesses, the defendants and the dead twins emerged during the month-long trial.

Maintenance worker Cann, from Hamilton Parish, told the trial Scraders lived in Burgess? gambling den on Elliott Street ?because he probably had nowhere else to stay?.

Whitter lived on Curving Avenue and Bartrum in Spanish Point, and the trial also heard they and the twins were part of the White Wall Crew that hung around Elliott Street and regularly frequented Burgess? gambling den.

Cann, 23, said he hung around in that area with the twins every other day, but denied they sold or used drugs there.

The trial heard Cann regarded the twins friends and knew their mother Rochelle so well he referred to her as auntie. He was also friends with the twins? older brother, Rashad, whom he had known since primary school.

Whitter, meanwhile, said he was good friends with Bartrum and Scraders as well as Robinson and Burgess. He had known the twins, his cousins, for 12 years.

Both eyewitnesses were accused of lying in court by defence counsel.

And it emerged that Whitter gave his account of March 13 to Police after he was arrested a few days after the twins? died, on suspicion of GBH against the Cooper brothers, although no further charges were pressed.

Whitter is also due to stand trial for allegedly robbing a drug dealer. And Burgess? defence team asked if he was giving evidence to get a lighter sentence in that case, a claim the Prosecution strongly denied.

The court also heard how Whitter had previous convictions for possessing cocaine, assaulting a Police officer and also for stealing and assaulting a woman when armed with a machete. That was committed with Bartrum, the court was told.

Cann?s previous convictions included giving false information to Police.

Prosecutors admitted the murder of the Cooper twins was not a ?high society? crime, and as the evidence unfolded it emerged that all eight people in the flat on March 13 had some links with criminal activity.

Only six of them, however, are able to say what happened on that fateful night.