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The Guyana Defence Force yesterday empanelled a board headed by Major Lawrence Fraser as President and comprising retired High Court Judge Winston Moore as Judge Advocate and five panelists with the ranks of Captain and Coast Guard Lieutenant, as court-martial proceedings commenced against one of its junior officers. Second Lieutenant Duane Rigby is facing a military trial on four charges stemming from a boating mishap with a civilian vessel on the evening of December 8, 2008, on the Cuyuni River near the Venezuelan border. As a result of the accident, two army ranks, Corporal 19012 Wesley Hopkinson and Private of 20523 Colwin Harris, lost their lives. Rigby was at the time the officer in–charge of the Eteringbang border location where they were stationed. Presenting the GDF’s case is Attorney-at-law Melissa Yearwood-Stewart, while the defence is headed by Attorney-at law Nigel Hughes, in association attorneys retired Colonel Gregory Gaskin and Ms Tanya Warren. The body of Hopkinson, of Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara, was retrieved on the morning of December 11, some 15 miles from the scene of the accident. The remains of Harris, who hailed from Friendship, another ECD village, were recovered on December 13 at the mouth of the Ekereku River. Immediately following the accident the GDF launched an intensive search for the missing ranks, as well as a Board of Inquiry (BOI).
An adjournment of the court martial has been taken until May 25.
GDF empanels board for Rigby court martial
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