…Prosecution calls police witnesses to the stand
THE Bartica Massacre trial continued in the High Court on Thursday before Justice Roxane George and a 12-member jury with two policemen being called to the witness stand. On trial are Mark Royden, called “Durant” or “Smallie”; Dennis Williams, called “Anaconda”; and Roger Simon, called “Goat Man”, for the murder of nine civilians and three policemen at Bartica on February 17, 2008.

Royden is represented by Roger Yearwood, and Williams and Simon by Saphier Hussain and Peter Hugh, respectively. However, only Hussain was in court as Hugh was unavailable, and Yearwood had to attend to an urgent family matter.
The first witness was Detective Sergeant Rodwell Sarrabo, who told the court that in 2008 he was a detective constable attached to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Homicide Squad at Eve Leary.
When led by the prosecution, he went into great detail about how, between April and November 2008, he and then Detective Corporal Suraj Singh came to meet Simon, Williams and Royden while they were all in custody for the murders.
He was very specific that at no time were the three either forced to give a statement, or threatened or promised anything.
Next on the stand was Superintendent of Police Linden Lord, who is currently attached to the Presidential Guard as the officer-in-charge for the Protection Unit assigned for President David Granger.
He, however, told the court that back in 2008, when the massacre occurred, he was stationed at the CID head office as a detective inspector.
He said that on June 18, 2008 at about 16:20hrs, on the instruction of the then crime chief, he put Royden on an identification parade with seven other men of similar height, complexion, age and race, and that of them all, he was the only one to be picked out by the witness, in a matter of 15 seconds, as having been involved in the Bartica killings. Lord said when he apprised Royden of this, his response was, “Officer, I never went Bartica.”

In a similar parade on November 9, 2008 around 11:00hrs, Williams was also the only person identified by the witness, again in a matter of seconds, as having been involved in the crime. And his response when cautioned about this development was, “Officer, me ain’t got nutten to say.”
Lord told the court that he lodged the original copies of the forms for the identification parades in the Property Book for both Royden and Williams, and that of the two, only the former affixed his signature. Williams refused.
Lord said in 2010, he tendered said documents in the Magistrates’ Court, and that at no time did he assist the witness in the identification parade to pick out the two accused.