COLWYN Harding, the young man who alleged that he was brutally baton-raped and otherwise assaulted by two police officers while in custody at the Timehri Police Station in 2013, yesterday testified at the Providence Magistrates Court as the case began. In the courtroom of Magistrate Leron Daly, Harding told the court that on the day in question, he was with his girlfriend, Tenisha Evans, in a house at Timehri on November 15, when he suddenly saw a light in the yard and asked her to go to the window and see what it was.

He then explained that after she failed to respond, he proceeded to the back door of the house to do his own investigation. However, when he approached the door and saw the lights flickering, he called out, enquiring who was it in his yard, when an unknown voice replied, demanding that he “open the f***ing door.”
“I then refused to open the door, because the person had failed to identify himself. Suddenly, the back door was kicked open, and men armed with torchlights and guns entered,” Harding testified.
Harding, who was further probed by the prosecutor, believed that a group of 10 officers entered the house. However, it was Constable Singh who handcuffed him and dragged him into the bedroom while the other officers continued to search the said house.
Singh, Harding noted, had enquired of him if he was a part of the notorious ‘Hot Skull’ gang, and began to beat him when he denied the allegation. He further explained that when he began to shout, the officer gagged him with his underwear and continued to beat him.
The witness explained that he was then dragged into the kitchen, where he was further interrogated and brutally beaten by the said officer, causing him to drop to his knees.
Harding then broke down in tears, causing the matter to be adjourned. Upon the recall, Harding was still traumatised and the magistrate adjourned the matter until Friday, July 10, 2015.
Earlier in court, Roselle Douglas’s lawyer Leslie Sobers in his address to the court asked for the case to be dismissed. Mr Glenn Hanoman, representing constable Devin Singh also made a joint application for dismissal of the matter. Hanoman disclosed that the officer had been interdicted from work for over a year and had suffered financial constraints. Mr Hanoman stressed that the prosecution was unable to satisfy the court which has been ongoing since 2014, stating that the officer had already suffered enough. The magistrate however disapproved and was ready to set an adjournment date when the prosecutor arrived and started the proceedings.

Police Constables Devin Singh, of Lot 125 Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, and Roselle Tilbury-Douglas of Alliance Road, Timehri, East Bank Demerara have been jointly charged with assaulting Harding during the period November 1 to November 13, 2013, at the Timehri Police Station, so as to cause him actual bodily harm. Devin Singh was also slapped with an additional assault charge, separately.

The constables had made their first appearance before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court and strongly denied the allegations.

Singh was released on $200,000 bail, while his colleague was granted bail in the sum of $100,000.
According to reports, the two police officers who were based at the Timehri Police Station, pushed a condom-covered baton up Harding’s anus in November, 2013.
Harding, who was at the time a prisoner on remand for allegedly assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, had suffered a ruptured intestine. Harding later underwent two private examinations, one at a private hospital here and the other in Jamaica and the conclusion from both examinations was that a foreign object had been inserted into his anus.