$100,000 given to victim’s father by police rank
– lawyer says case will go on as money was just for transportation

AFTER taking it upon himself to pour methylated spirits on the hands of a 19-year-old boy and then setting them alight at the Sparendaam Police Station, the aberrant police officer got the father of the teen to sign a document for $100,000, which was handed over to him.

The Guyana Chronicle was informed that the intention of the police officer were to induce the relatives of the young man to consider it as a form of compensation, thus persuading them from pursuing the matter in court.

However, attorney-at-law Dexter Todd told the media, yesterday, that while money was handed over to the youth’s father, which he had to sign for, he was advised by his clients that the sum was merely to assist them with transportation arrangements.

Todd made it clear that the money was never intended to be used as a form of settlement based on the briefing by his client.

Moreover, the attorney asserted that the transportation assistance will not be used to deter his client from giving statements against the police rank fingered in the incident or those who had been witnesses.

Speaking at the Burn Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital yesterday morning, the lawyer said that as a former policeman himself, he is always saddened whenever he encounters cases of police excesses and brutality since he knows that no police officer who enjoys the job or understands their role as a law enforcer will ever act in such a manner.

He said that since the police themselves initiated the investigation through the Police Office of Professional Responsibility, they will be allowed to do their job even as the victim and his relatives expect a speedy investigation and justice.

The police will be allowed to do their job, Todd emphasised. He said that yesterday was the first time that both he and the police investigators would have been doing an in-depth interview with the victim. He said that he does not expect the investigation to run longer than a month.

Speaking with the youth who was burnt on his hands by the police, 19-year-old Junior Torrington of Eastville Housing Scheme, Annandale, East Coast Demerara, he told this newspaper, at the Georgetown Hospital, that he was locked up for three days at the Sparendaam Police Station.

Asked how he ended up there, the teen related that he has a few puppies and his grandmother with whom he lives instructed him to get them out of the yard since they were making her uncomfortable.

He said that he then went to Plaisance to give them to a friend and while he was in that community he was arrested by the police. The young man, however, could not get to the point of explaining what led to his arrest since the nurses at the Burn Care Unit interrupted his interaction with the media at that point.

Meanwhile, the Guyana Police Force, yesterday, sent two ranks to the Burn Care Unit to interview Torrington in the presence of his attorney Dexter Todd.

In the meantime, it has been observed that it will take the devil’s own job for the Guyana Police Force to prove to citizens that they really are serious about any reform process and engaging communities in a way that will see cooperation.

Any move to really regain public confidence will mean that every single delinquent rank who has proven that he or she is unfit to serve and protect the citizens will have to be shed from the Force.

This publication has been informed that the Sparendaam Police Station is being managed by a police officer who was among several ranks who were fingered in the 2009 torture of the teenager at the Leonora Police Station lock-ups. However, he is not the same police officer fingered in the torturing of the teen at the Sparendaam Police Station.

In the 2009 case the child was burnt to his genitals with the use of a lighter and methylated spirits.

This latest incident comes even as the police are working with several communities to forge a positive relationship with the youths. It comes up too just as two constables have been charged with assaulting Colwyn Harding late last year. Devin Singh and Roslyn Tilbury-Douglas appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, yesterday, charged with assaulting Harding sometime between November 1 and November 13, 2013 at the Timehri Police Station. Harding had accused a police constable of ramming a condom-covered baton up his anus and later physically assaulting him last November. Then there is another recent case of police brutality in which a cadet officer shot a teenager in his mouth Russian roulette style.
Although the Sparendaam Police Station matter is engaging the attention of the Police Office for Professional Responsibility at present, this publication has been informed that none of the ranks reportedly involved has been placed under close arrest at this point.

(By Leroy Smith and Asif Hakim)