Different magistrate also refuses Hinckson bail
EX-GUYANA Defence Force (GDF) Lieutenant Oliver Hinckson, who is charged with sedition and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, was taken to a different Court yesterday but Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle also rejected his plea for bail.

The cases involving the 64-year-old accused were before Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys but the latter is not sitting currently, since his involvement in a recent shooting incident.

The allegations against Hinckson are that, last January 31, he advocated terrorism and made a seditious speech to the public and news media, which would create hatred and contempt and promote public disorder.

Hinckson repeated his request for pre-trial freedom yesterday, telling Magistrate Robertson-Ogle that she should consider him because he it is as if he is locked away in a dungeon.

He complained that he has not seen sunlight for the past week.

"…I was in solitary confinement for no reason," Hinckson stated.

He said he is being kept in a five feet by 12 inches cell for 23 hours a day and not allowed to speak to or see anyone.

"This is contrary to human rights. It's a crime against humanity," Hinckson remarked.

He also said he has a medical problem and is at risk of contracting tuberculosis that is prevalent in the jail.

Outside, Police are harassing his relatives when they go to visit him and away from the prison, Hinckson charged, saying that the home of his friend for 39 years has been searched four times.

Asked by the magistrate, if he knew about the treatment Hinckson receives in prison, Special Prosecutor Sanjeev Datadin said he was not so instructed and had no comment.

Police Inspector Robert Tyndall, prosecuting Hinckson's firearm and ammunition cases, in which James Gibson, another ex-solder, is co-defendant, also had no knowledge of the complaints.

On those charges, Hinckson and Gibson face joint charges of being in illegal possession of a .380 pistol, 12 matching bullets and twenty-six 12-gauge shotgun cartridges, on June 6, 2006, in a house on Aubrey Barker Street, South Ruimveldt, Georgetown.

The proceedings against Gibson are continuing in his absence but Hinckson has to make another Court appearance on July 11.

Son who ‘trips off’ jailed for wounding mother
TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Donald Clarke, of Lot 2034 Hummingbird Street, Festival City, Georgetown, was yesterday sentenced to three years imprisonment for wounding his mother.

It happened at his second appearance before Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle, when he pleaded guilty to having feloniously wounded Sudamay Clarke, last June 14, with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or cause her grievous bodily harm.

Police Inspector Denise Griffith, prosecuting, said the prisoner and the virtual complainant live in the same house and he would usually assault her but she did not always report the attacks.

The Prosecutor said the victim was sweeping her kitchen that day when her son went to the stove to take off a pot and she told him she would have to sweeten the contents.

He became annoyed, took a knife from the wares rack and stabbed her to the left side ribs and repeated the stabs after she fell while trying to run away from him, Griffith said.

The convict used indecent language when stating that he was sweeping and his mother was in the way, so he wounded her.

Clarke was not required to plea when he first appeared in Court and Police Corporal Sherwin Matthews, prosecuting then, had said a doctor would need to pronounce on whether the accused could stand trial.

Matthews had said Clarke “trips off” and his sister, Michelle Carroll reported that her sibling was a patient in the Psychiatric Ward of Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).

Accused gunpoint jewellery robber remanded
WAYNE Brotherson was yesterday remanded to prison, by Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton, on a robbery under arms charge.

The accused, 37, of Lot 41 Hadfield Street, Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown, is charged indictably with having, last June 29, robbed Kevon Welcome, at gunpoint, of one diamond ring, two gold bands and one gold chain, all valued $230,000.

The case will be called again July 25.

At Demerara Assizes…
Mother, son claim Police destroyed acid burning defence
THE mother and son, who are facing a three-count indictment in the acid burning case at the Demerara Assizes, claimed Thursday that they cannot lead a proper defence because of Police action.

Renee and Komal Persaud are indicted for throwing a corrosive substance with intent to murder and inflicting and causing grievous bodily harm to Navin Seepersaud on November 25, 2004.

But the two accused complained to Justice Roxanne George that the Police have destroyed the evidence which could have shown that the incident occurred on their premises and the victim was burnt with his own acid.

The duo denied being responsible for the first and second degree burns suffered by Seepersaud.

Komal Persaud, in a statement from the dock, said the victim was armed with a cutlass and a bottle containing the substance when he entered the yard in which the former lives.

The accused said the victim attacked him with the blade but it fell and Seepersaud then tried to open the bottle and, believing the latter was about to throw the liquid on him, he picked up a billiards cue that was nearby and struck the container from his hand.

The bottle broke and the contents spilled on Seepersaud, himself, the number two accused stated.

He said a policeman arrived on the scene and gathered the broken pieces of glass and the cue which he lodged at the station.

However, as none of the exhibits taken from the scene were submitted in evidence nor could be found in the Crime Books at Providence Police Station, he believes that Police destroyed their defence.

He declared that, with proper investigations, the substance would have been identified and fingerprints lifted from the broken bottle pieces.

He concluded his statement by reiterating his innocence and added that his mother never handed him anything to throw on Seepersaud, as charged by the Prosecution.

One witness for the Defence, son-in-law of Renee Persaud, Edward Veerasammy testified that, earlier on November 25, 2004, he parted a fight between the male accused, his cousin and Vishal, who had cursed the Persauds and said ill things about them.

Veerasammy said he was not present during the confrontation between Komal Persaud and Seepersaud at Second Street, Herstelling, also on East Bank Demerara, but was there at the time when the Police arrived to begin investigating.

According to the witness, he collected the broken bottle pieces and the cue and gave them to Police Corporal Elias.

Cross-examined by State Prosecutor Kara Duff-Yehudah on Friday, Veerasammy admitted that he was arrested and charged in connection with the acid throwing on Seepersaud but reported that the case was dismissed at the preliminary inquiry (PI) stage.

The witness also acknowledged inconsistencies between what he told the Police and the jury and said he had made mistakes but refuted a suggestion that his testimony in Court was a cover-up.

The case has been adjourned until next week Friday, to facilitate overseas travel by the judge, on official duties.