THE Guyana Police Force has responded to an article first broken by this newspaper regarding the file for Junior Torrington which was sent to the Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority.

This newspaper had reported last week that the PCA Chairman had been unable to properly review the file because the police had sent it to him minus the medical report.

A police press release yesterday stated that the police had made numerous attempts to have the Georgetown Public Hospital issue the report, but to no avail.
The police disclosed that the latest request for the medical to be issued was made yesterday afternoon, and that ranks from the Police Office of Professional Responsibility who had investigated the matter had been making continued efforts to acquire a copy of the medical from the GPHC, since the young man was discharged from the institution.

According to the police, when they made their last check for the report yesterday, they were informed that they should check for the report again on Friday.

Meanwhile, contacted last evening, the Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Mr. Michael Khan, said the police should just as quickly do proper investigations as they seek to cast blame. He told the Guyana Chronicle that the doctor who had attended to Torrington when he was a patient, and who has to put together the medical report, is a part-time doctor.

Khan said the request for the medical report was made only late in the afternoon of some day in last week.

Last week, when the Guyana Chronicle checked with the Georgetown Public Hospital in respect to the issuing of the medical for the young man, this publication was told that the request has to officially emanate from the Guyana Police Force, and that the GPHC had not yet received that request, hence no medical had been issued.

Junior Torrington was tortured by a detective constable at the Sparendaam Police Station. His hands had been burnt after methylated spirits had been poured on them and they had been set alight. The teen was at the time being questioned in connection with an offense.

The deviant police officer then approached the father of the teen with an offer of one hundred thousand dollars as a form of settlement for the teen’s torture, but Attorney Dexter Todd, overseeing the lad’s interest, told reporters that the boy’s father had understood that the money was to be assistance with transportation costs for the young man.

That incident saw one man being placed under close arrest, and another being transferred to the animal section of the GPF for trying to cover up the inhumane treatment of another human being at the hands of a police officer, whose job is to serve and protect all citizens.
Written By Leroy Smith