By George Barclay

GUYSUCO security officer Moses Harvey, who had confessed to the police that he had chopped a man who had attacked his wife one night in 2006, was freed by the jury on Friday on the directions of the judge.This happened after State Counsel Shonette Austin and Siand Dhurjon closed the case for the prosecution. They alleged that apart from the accused, they had been unable to locate the main witness since the commission of the crime in 2006.

Justice Jo-Ann Barlow thus commended the accused for cooperating with the court, instead of staying away as others had done.

When the case was called some days ago, the accused — Harvey, of Herstelling, East Bank, Demerara — pleaded not guilty to the offence of wounding, and a 12-member jury was selected to try the case. When the hearing was called, the accused intimated from the dock that he was unrepresented by counsel.

The first witness to be called by the prosecution was Police Inspector Shivram Murugaypo of Brickdam Police Station, who told the court it was alleged that the accused, armed with a cutlass on November 1, 2006, inflicted chop wounds on Deokarran Paramand at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, causing him to be hospitalised at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

The Inspector said the accused admitted inflicting wounds on Persaud, and he produced a statement to that effect. The statement was read to the jury, at which stage the prosecution indicated that they could not tell where the virtual complainant was, and declared that this was the pattern of things since the trial started 10 years ago.

There being no evidence other than from the accused, who noted that his wife was at home on the night of the incident when she was attacked by the virtual complainant, and that he hit out with his cutlass in defence of his wife, thereby injuring the V.C., the judge directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty in favour of the accused.