Paramedic 'threatened Travolta over son's death'

John Travolta claimed in court today that a blackmailing paramedic threatened to sell stories suggesting the actor was at fault over his son’s death.

The Grease star told a jury in the Bahamas that Tarino Lightbourne demanded $25m (€17m) and indicated that he would use a form against him in which Travolta stated he didn’t want 16-year-old Jett sent to a local hospital.

The 55-year-old actor added that if he didn’t pay up the defendant intended to suggest that the death was intentional and that Travolta was culpable.

Jett died at the family’s holiday home on Grand Bahama on January 2 following a seizure.

Testifying in the second week of the trial of Lightbourne and Pleasant Bridgewater, a former Bahamas senator alleged to have negotiated with the actor’s lawyers on behalf of the medic, Travolta said the paramedic threatened to concoct a story and go to the press.

“They were stories that would imply that the death of my son was intentional and I was culpable in some way,” he told the court in Nassau.

Last week the actor explained to jurors that he initially signed a document refusing to have his son sent to a local hospital because he wanted him flown to Florida for treatment.

It was later decided that Jett should be transported to a clinic on the island.

However, it is alleged that Lightbourne intended to use the initial form clearing him of any liability to suggest that Travolta was at fault.

Lightbourne indicated that he would use the form against Travolta unless he handed over the money, it is claimed.

Travolta’s Bahamian lawyer Allyson Maynard-Gibson has testified that Bridgewater told her during a January meeting that the paramedic had spoken to a woman from a US news outlet “who said it might be beneficial to him if he could show that Travolta was negligent”.

She added that Lightbourne was in talks with several other media companies.

Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.

After giving evidence today, Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston left the courthouse with an entourage that included attorneys and bodyguards.