A prosecution witness who was sent to the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital by a High Court judge for evaluation a week ago is still there.

She will not have to give further evidence after the hospital’s director said the witness was at level-three suicide watch and has said she would rather “commit suicide than to give evidence.”

Dr Samuel Shafe also said his medical team needed more time to assess her.

This update was given to the High Court judge who ordered the witness sent to St Ann’s. On May 22, Justice Lisa Ramsumar-Hinds ordered the woman sent to the hospital after she overdosed on a substance while waiting to continue her testimony in the trial of a Beetham man.

The accused, Christon "Grimey Dog" Greaves, is alleged to have killed Laventille schoolboy Kazim Maxine, 16, in August 2013, outside the Laventille Technology and Continuing Education Centre off the Eastern Main Road, Laventille, near the Citrus Growers Association.

Greaves is before the court in a judge-only trial.

Early in the woman’s testimony last week, the judge expressed concern about her demeanour, as she was crying, holding her head and shaking.

The witness admitted she had self-medicated to “kill herself.”

The judge’s order to send her to St Ann’s came after she was told, late in the afternoon, the woman had taken“too much of something and is now on the floor.”

“I have concerns that this witness needs treatment.

"I do not want to hear she has harmed herself. I am not saying she is mentally ill or suffers from a mental incapacity, I am not qualified to do so.”

Ramsumair-Hinds made the order under section 13 of the Mental Health Act, after quoting section 6. The latter says an order of the court can admit any person who is or is reasonably believed to need treatment. Section 13 gives a court the power to make such an order.

The judge said she believed the witness’s actions and demeanour during her testimony had triggered section 6.

The Judiciary’s medical team called an ambulance to take the witness to hospital for treatment for whatever substance she had taken, before she was sent to St Ann’s.

The matter was adjourned to May 28, to get an update from the hospital’s director.

Shafe said the witness was seen on Friday and Saturday and the hospital’s forensic team took over on Monday. He said the team asked for two weeks for a proper assessment and treatment.

Shafe also said the witness was under “acute care” and had to be monitored every 15 minutes.

He could not give a definitive answer to the judge’s question as to whether the witness was “fit enough” to continue to give evidence until she is properly assessed.

Although Ramsumair-Hinds expressed concern over suspending the witness’s right to liberty, she said her greater concern was the woman’s well-being.

The judge continued her section 13 order until next Wednesday, when Shafe is expected to submit a report.

At Tuesday's hearing, the judge invited brief submissions on section 15C(1)(b) of the Evidence Act, which allows a court to admit a statement in a