–independent medical report confirming sodomy sent to DPP
CHAIRMAN of the Police Complaints Authority, Justice Cecil Kennard, last week told the Guyana Chronicle that, based on the materials which were provided to him as he conducted his leg of the investigation into the Colwyn Harding claims of being sodomised, there was no evidence to substantiate the young man’s claims in this regard.Last week, Justice Kennard submitted his report to the Guyana Police Force (GPF), which furthered same to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Justice Kennard had pointed out that a medical report would have had to be produced to verify sodomy or penetration of Harding’s anus.

However, while the Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority was not in receipt of a medical report, and thus concluded his leg of the investigation minus such a report, the Director of Public Prosecutions has been in receipt of a medical report prepared by a health practitioner outside of the Georgetown Public Hospital and handed to the DPP by the attorney for the 23 year old.

Yesterday, attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes, who has been representing the interest of Colwyn Harding and his family, told a press conference that after Harding had been discharged from the GPH, he was seen by a private doctor, who confirmed that there was activity inside the anus. The findings were further concretized when the young man travelled to Jamaica and was seen by doctors in that country.

Relatives of the man are now hoping that the DPP would use the medical report which she has at her disposal to form part of her final decision on the charges to be levelled against the errant ranks of the Timehri Police Station.

Hughes told the press conference that he did not hand over the medical report to the Police Complaints Authority because a complaint was not being filed against the police. Rather, they were reporting a criminal act, and as such the evidence is worth more going to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who deals with criminal matters and not complaints.

The independent examination of Harding was conducted within the confines of the St Joseph Mercy Hospital in Georgetown, where evidence was found that a “foreign object” had been inserted into the rectum of Colwyn Harding and had resulted in him bleeding internally.

Hughes would not disclose who had performed the examination, but he confirmed that the individual is competent to so do.

Doctors at the GPHC never checked Harding for activity inside the rectum since, according to them, he never informed that that he had been raped, and they allegedly could not make that determination at the time, given the period that had elapsed between occurrence of the incident and their examining him. The young man had been treated at the GPH only for strangulated hernia.

“That (local) expert found that there was active rectal mucosal bleeding on Mr. Harding in the upper rectum. The medical records from the same expert, which were examined by the doctors in Jamaica, specifically said that the doctors who performed the surgeries on Mr. Harding did not examine the rectum or the anus,” Hughes told the press conference.

Harding has returned to Guyana from Jamaica, but is due to return to Jamaica for another surgery in a few weeks’ time. Doctors in Jamaica reportedly found that there was inflammation of the rectum, and the surgeons there were unable to go beyond 25cm with the scope, indicative of an injury that is consistent with abuse.

After encountering that bit, the doctors in Jamaica recommended an even further study of Harding’s intestines before he has his third surgery, which is more than likely to be performed in Jamaica.
Written By Leroy Smith