A suspended Police constable ? on trial for stalking ? vows he?ll defend himself after firing his lawyer.

It was a turbulent day in Magistrates? Court for 36-year-old Robert Butterfield.

He cried uncontrollably, openly blamed the Police Service for his legal problems, then summarily fired veteran defence attorney Edward King.

?This is my life,? Butterfield said in the courtroom lobby afterwards. ?I will represent myself.?

This is the second time the officer fired his counsel in as many months.

Last month he got rid of Llewellyn Peniston midway through a pre-trial hearing on the same case.

Yesterday he said goodbye to Mr. King.

Mr. King had told the court: ?I?ve been doing my utmost in his best interest. I?d like to know from Mr. Butterfield here and now if I?m still acting as counsel for him.?

Ultimately, his client?s answer to that question was no.

Butterfield was apparently upset because Crown counsel Paula Tyndale requested new bail conditions for the defendant which included no contact orders for the complainant and her family members.

When Mr. King offered no objection to that request, the rift between client and attorney became irreversible.

?There is no need for those conditions of bail at this time,? Butterfield said in his own defence.

But he lost the argument.

This was supposed to be day three of a stalking trial against the Policeman whose former lover accuses him of obsessively following her, forcing her into sex, and verbally abusing her.

The two share a 20-month-old daughter.

Up until this point Mr. King had attempted to prove the stalking was mostly coincidental because the two parties were practically neighbours in St. David?s. He also suggested the sex between them last summer was consensual. Yesterday morning began strangely as Butterfield sat himself on the floor of the courthouse lobby and could be heard loudly sobbing.

He was taken, unrestrained, to the Hamilton Police Department to compose himself.

He returned calmer, but it wasn?t long before he was yelling inside the courtroom as he waited for the proceedings to resume.

?I hate the Police department,? he said in the company of two reporters, ?but I love the job. They tell me to keep quiet, I?m not keeping quiet no more.?

He wet on to say some unflattering things about Police Commissioner George Jackson and then accused the Police Service of paying his former lover to testify against him.

Moments later seven uniformed officers entered and stood around the perimeter of the courtroom.

Magistrate Juan Wolffe walked in next and the defendant was once again crying uncontrollably.

Mr. Wolffe asked what could the court do to help.

Butterfield said: ?Get my daughter back with her mother. Get my daughter back with her mother and I?ll be straight.

?I don?t want my daughter in a foster home.

?I was in a foster home for 25 years.

?Just get her back with her mother please,? he pleaded.

The father of one had apparently just learned Family Services was placing his child in foster care because a Family Court Judge lost confidence in the ability of the two sides to get along. Late yesterday that decision was being appealed to Supreme Court.

The weight of the foster care ruling apparently fuelled the defendant?s unpredictable behaviour.

The 37-year-old complainant sitting one row behind Butterfield was also crying.

She had come to court expecting to complete her cross-examination which began on Tuesday.

Whenever she ultimately retakes the stand, she may be grilled by the very man she accuses of stalking her.

Before Mr. King left the court his former client asked for all the documents relevant to the case.

Mr. King told the defendant he had a lien on the documents and he planned on keeping his property.

The trial has been continued until January 11.

By that date Butterfield will have served a suspension from the Police Service which has lasted longer than a year.