The 17 prisoners who died as a result of a riot at the Camp Street prison on May 3 all died mainly due to burns and smoke inhalation, though the pathologist who examined the bodies pointed to evidence of blunt trauma.

Blunt trauma usually refers to a person being hit with a solid object, but chief government pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh has said the two instances of blunt trauma he encountered may have been as a result of a fall or intentional or unintentional acts of violence, such as cuffing or lashing.

Dr Singh, who has close to 30 years of experience, was cross-examined Tuesday before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed by President David Granger to look into the circumstances surrounding the deadly riot in which prisoners are said to have set fire to the remand block of the facility.

Several of the prisoners had testified that they saw a headless body among the dead, but Dr Singh said none of the bodies he examined were headless.

Dr Singh’s revelation is in stark contrast to that of prisoner Steve Bacchus, who had told the Commissioners that while he was among the first to enter the burnt Capital A block on March 3, he observed a single burnt skull on a mattress, but it was severed from the prisoner’s body.

He said he observed the burnt skull while searching for his friend Germaine Otto, called ‘Fungus’, whom he had already realised was dead.

Read the full story in Wednesday’s edition of the Guyana Chronicle.