IT was chaos at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday when three high-profile prisoners freed themselves of their handcuffs and disposed of them in the compound of the St Andrews Kirk.

The three murder accused: Steven Prescott, also known as ‘Assassin’, Orin Arthur and Uree Varswyk, are well known for creating a ruckus in the court.

Tuesday’s series of events started as soon as the men arrived at the court from the Camp Street Prison and disembarked the vehicle.An onlooker, after seeing the prisoners discard the handcuffs in the churchyard, quickly ran across the road and retrieved them for the police.

Police, armed with high-powered guns, flocked the court’s outpost in an attempt to get the men under control, as they refused to be placed in the holding cells. The inmates revolted against the police, hurling derogatory remarks at the lawmen.

Arthur had pleaded with the officers for his lawyer, Jed Vasconcellos, but was ignored. Furious, Arthur made use of threatening behaviour, after which the police finally summoned his attorney. The ruckus had caused a crowd to gather on the court steps, but officers quickly removed them and placed special emphasis on the court reporters as an officer ordered: “members of the media please go inside the courts.”

The prisoners however objected to the reporters’ removal and requested that their mistreatment be witnessed. After an hour, the three inmates were then placed into the police truck and escorted back to the Camp Street prison.

It is being alleged that the regular officers at the court would routinely allow the three murder accused to smoke marijuana in the holding area and walk around without handcuffs. The officer, reports state, has been observed many times being friendly with the murder accused. Orin Arthur, 27 of One Mile Wismar, Linden; Steven Prescott, 44, called ‘Assassin’ of Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara; and Yori Varswyk, 26 of Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara were jointly charged with the murder of a Guyana Geology and Mines Commission engineer, Trevor Abrams in December 2015.

The preliminary hearing into Abrams’ murder is currently ongoing before city Magistrate Judy Latchman and has been adjourned until March 30.

Last November, Arthur and Varswyk were committed to stand trial at the High Court for the murder of Sterling Products Limited (SPL) security guard, Wilfred Stewart, who was killed during a robbery at Providence in 2014.