….CC&PA Director says brother traumatised, not at fault
The post-mortem examination (PME) conducted on one-year-old, Andre Tappin, of La Grange, West Bank Demerara (WBD) who was allegedly poisoned by his 9-year-old brother, gave the cause of death as inconclusive.
The examination was conducted by Dr Nehaul Singh on Friday at the Georgetown Public Hospital Mortuary (GPHC).
According to the police, the toddler’s stomach content has since been collected for further testing to determine cause of death.
INews reported on Thursday that Tappin succumbed at GPHC after he was rushed to the facility by his mother after allegedly ingesting carbon tablets.
After the mother observed the baby vomiting on the day in question, the boy allegedly confessed to what he had done.
However, Director of the CC&PA Ann Greene claimed that a detailed interview was conducted with the 9-year-old, who indicated that he purchased the rat poison at a known location in the community after rats were damaging his stepfather’s books.
“There is nothing that shows that he was killed by his brother… The investigation is going on and we have the child in care and the child is being able to give a good account. He bought the rat poison not to kill his brother, but to kill rats,” Greene told this publication.
According to the young man, his mother and stepfather were quarreling over the presence of rats in their home and he thought it best to ask a friend at school for money to buy the poison.
“This child said on camera in the interview that his parents had an argument, the mother and stepfather about rats eating up the stepfather’s books or something. So this child went to school and get money from a friend, beg his friend for $100 and he went to a shop and bought the rat poison to kill the rats.”
Greene said the child recalled that he would have arrived home and placed the rat poison on a low table. He subsequently went to prepare tea and in his absence, the one-year-old child consumed the tablet.
“He came home and put it on a low table and then he went to make tea for him and his brother. The little one went to the table and got it and started to eat it. By time he notice and he looked, he child had eaten a greater part of the thing and he raised an alarm and woke up his mother and they took the child to the hospital,” Greene said.
The CC&PA Director posited that the child was “traumatised” after being blamed for the death of his younger brother. However, she claimed that the individual who sold the poison is entirely responsible.
“This is so hard for this child. When we interviewed this child, this child was so traumatised and how they were blaming him for the child’s death. Anybody to be blamed is who would sell or give rat poison to a nine-year-old child. What sort of society do we live in?” Greene related.
Since the incident occurred, the mother has been taken into custody.
