John Travolta to testify over son Jett’s death

The actor and Scientologist John Travolta is due to speak publicly for the first time about the death earlier this year of his teenage son, Jett, when he gives evidence at a blackmail trial in Nassau. Jett died after he suffered a seizure and hit his head on the edge of a bath at the family's holiday home in the Bahamas.

Travolta, back on the islands for the first time since the tragedy on January 2, is expected to be the star witness in the trial of two local men - ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne and lawyer Pleasant Bridgewater - who are alleged to have tried to extort $25m from the actor and his wife Kelly Preston in exchange for a legal document relating to Jett's treatment.

The men were caught on tape saying they would release the document to the media if Travolta did not pay up, according to Bernard Turner, chief prosecutor, in his opening remarks yesterday.

Central to the case is the speculation, rife at the time of the fatal accident, that Travolta's belief in Scientology may have delayed his son's treatment. No evidence has ever emerged to support this.

The Travolta family say Jett suffered from Kawasaki disease, a rare condition which causes inflammation of small and medium-size arteries. However, Kawasaki disease rarely affects children over eight - Jett was 16 - and is seldom fatal.

As a result, some medical experts suggested that Jett had actually been suffering from an acute form of autism - ­ a condition not recognised by Scientologists.

The case against Lightbourne and Bridgewater is that they tried to exploit this possible controversy by contacting the Travoltas' lawyer and demanding $25m for the return of a liability release form the actor had signed when the ambulance was called to the house.

The purpose of the form was to release the ambulancemen from responsibility should Travolta prevent his son being taken to hospital. This did not happen, however, and Jett was taken almost immediately to Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport.

Given the release form's apparent insignificance, one question the trial will have to address is why the two men would have expected Travolta to pay anything for it. Both Lightbourne and Bridgewater have pleaed not guilty to blackmail. ·