Special Prosecutor to be chosen for Harding case

THE Police will be choosing a special prosecutor to prosecute the two defendants charged in the controversial November, 2013, Colwyn Harding case.

This was disclosed in the Providence Magistrate’s Court yesterday by prosecuting Sergeant, Shelon Daniels.
Daniels told the Court she would have to recuse herself from the matter since she is among the more than 30 persons who were asked to submit statements during the investigations.
Yesterday, too, attorney-at-law, Mr. Leslie Sobers, who is representing the number two defendant, Constable Roslyn Tilbury-Douglas, requested that the Prosecution make available to the Defence all the attestations which were submitted.
The lawyer mentioned, specifically, that he would also require to testify, those persons who are not scheduled to be called by the Prosecution.
Other attorney-at-law Mr. Glen Hanoman, for the number one defendant, Constable Devin Singh, was not present yesterday. However, from Sobers, the Court learnt that last Tuesday, after he (Singh) posted his $200,000 bail on the two charges he became fearful for his life.
As a result, when he was about to exit the Court precincts through the passageway used by accused prisoners, he saw someone holding a camera, brandishing a knife, and advancing towards him.
According to Sobers, Singh rushed back into the courtroom from where he used an alternative means to leave the premises.
That defendant has since made a report to the Brickdam Police Station about the incident.

JUMPED OVER
On Tuesday, Singh jumped over the stairway of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court before scaling the fence and sprinting along Brickdam to the Brickdam Police Station where he sought refuge from the members of the media who were in pursuit of him in an effort to
take his photograph.

His claims that someone pulled a knife on him while he was in the confines of the Court premises, which raises a very serious concern for security at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, and whether persons seeking access there are scanned or subjected to a Police search.
When the Prosecution called for Harding in the assault case, he was not present in Court and his mother informed the Magistrate that he was keeping a doctor’s appointment.
In response to the request for all the statements submitted, Sobers asked the Court for some time, as the documents would have to be copied and there are more than 200 pages of documentation, and copies will be needed for the Defence and the Court’s record.
The Court was also told on Tuesday, that there were several statements ready to be used in the case and it was just a matter of the Prosecution at Providence Court to decide in what order those would be used.
The case will be called again on June 24.
Singh and Tilbury-Douglas are jointly charged with assault causing actual bodily harm and, in addition, Singh alone faces a charge of common assault.
For the joint assault causing actual bodily harm offence, the two were placed on $100,000 bail each, while Singh alone is on another $100,000 bail for the common assault accusation.
Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority, Mr. Cecil Kennard, had indicated to the Guyana Chronicle that he had recommended criminal charges against two Police ranks in
the Harding investigation, while six more fingered in the probe are to be dealt with
departmentally.
Harding alleged that he was assaulted and sodomised by Singh with the use of a baton while in custody at Timehri Police Station, East Bank Demerara.
He had not been taken to seek medical attention immediately after complaining of pains but was later admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) in a serious condition,
and subsequently flown out of the country for additional medical attention after being diagnosed with a raptured intestine.

(Leroy Smith)