…as bound body pulled from river

SCREAMING and wailing mixed with anger and disgust filled the air as the body of 13-year-

old Leonard Archibald of East Bank Berbice, who was brutally raped, was brought to Sister’s Village where hundreds gathered on Saturday.

The lad’s badly decomposed body was discovered around 15:00 hrs on the banks of the Berbice River in Kortherbraadt Village, East Bank Berbice.

That is three villages away from where he was allegedly dumped overboard by two men who savagely sodomised him until he was unconscious.

The discovery was made by a quartet from a search party that was out since Friday combing all corners of the Berbice River after one of the suspects confessed to the heinous crime.

According to Radesh Ramkarran, 40, who was the first to leave the boat, the lad’s body was found in a crouching position, badly decomposed and bound.

“When we reach halfway by Kortherbraadt we see some carrion crows and right up till in the corner of the mudflat we notice the khaki pants he had on and we pull in… he did lying down fold up like he sleeping and when we reach closer, we see he tie up like a guana… like the tide wash he up and is a good thing we find him now cause if the tide did rise again he would a move and we probably won’t find he, cause the body done did start fuh loose up,” Ramkarran said.

He explained that they notified the police and they placed the body in the boat and bought it to a mooring facility behind the Sister’s Police Station and there investigators took control of the body.

At the scene, the child’s mother Abigail Archibald stood in a state of shock with tears running down her cheeks, while relatives tried to offer words of comfort as undertakers

removed the remains of her son from the boat to the hearse.

As the body was being moved, scores of villagers started shouting expletives, wishing that the suspects suffer a similar fate and rot in jail.

Many questioned the motive behind the act and whether the suspects were human.

Moments before receiving the dreadful news, Abigail spoke with the Guyana Chronicle and expressed hope that her son, the sixth of 10 children, may still be alive somewhere as she kept in touch with members of the search party.

GOOD CHILD
She describes young Leonard as a “good and willing child,” pointing out that if anyone asked for a favour, he would go out of his way to ensure it is done.

The mother recalled on Sunday evening before leaving to bring his sisters safely home, he asked her for food.

“I take out his food and he eat and left to collect his sisters, he never came back, my son never come back home,” she said in tears.

Meanwhile, the news of the teen’s demise has sent the closely knit community of East Bank Berbice into a state of shock with many calling for implementation of the death penalty.

“I am a parent of five, three are boys and even though none are this boy’s age, I am placing myself in that parent’s shoe and cannot imagine what she was going through. What happened has rocked this community, we are all restless and cannot sleep at night, how can someone do such a thing to a child, they are just heartless. I am happy we found the body so we can give him a proper send off,” said Petrula Wilson, a resident of Glasgow Housing Scheme

Many residents were of the view that the suspects should be given the death penalty, so that the family can have some sense of satisfaction.

“I think justice should be served immediately, they don’t need to go to court, they should be hanged, don’t waste our taxpayers’ money feeding these creatures. The family has been through a lot, it’s the least they deserve and unless you are a parent, you won’t understand what they must be going through,”Delroy Barron, a resident of Sisters Village, said.

CALLS FOR JUSTICE
Earlier in the day, a walk organised by the community and the teen’s family was held Saturday morning in honour of the teen, calling for justice.

It commenced at Rotterdam Village and concluded in front of the house of one of the suspects at Sister’s Village.

Young Leonard was last seen riding his bicycle along the Brother’s Public Road in a pair of trousers. He was going to collect his three sisters who were at a birthday party at a nearby village.

According to information, the teen collected his sisters and was accompanying them home when he told them he was riding ahead and will meet up at home.

However, when the girls arrived home, the Overwinning Primary School teen was not there and a search conducted failed to locate him.

Following an intense investigation, several persons were questioned and two main suspects were arrested. On Friday, the duo confessed to detectives that they snatched the teen, sodomised him and later dumped his unconscious body in the Berbice River.

Many residents who requested anonymity, said the suspects were involved in several other incidents in which they had raped and abused other children in the area.

Residents were relieved that the suspects were captured and said in previous incidents, they would have settled the matters before they reached the court.

“Them always molesting me when I was small, one time them beat me up and I always living in fear since then; I does try to avoid he as much as possible and I does get nightmare. I hope after today he never get to see the light of day again,” one resident said.

Police say charges are being prepared and the suspects are expected to be formally charged for murder early next week.