By Leroy Smith
[www.inewsguyana.com] – There is no hard evidence to file buggery charges against any of the ranks of the Timehri Police Station, who are being investigated following allegations of Colwyn Harding, a 23 year old prisoner who was in the custody of the ranks.
However, there are criminal charges of assault coming against two ranks of the station while several others will be disciplined under the Police Disciplinary Act for a breach of the Standard Operating Procedures.
This was confirmed by Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Justice Cecil Kennard who has been reviewing statements and other documents with respect to his leg of the investigation which was completed on Tuesday, February 4.
The retired Justice would not say what his recommendations are but stated that the Director of Public Prosecution should get her file by Wednesday, February 5.
This will be two days after the PCA Chairman initially wanted to ensure that the file was on the DPP’s desk. During a telephone conversation with iNews it was pointed out that buggery was hard to prove since the evidence was not there to support such claims and this is coupled with the time the incident was report from when it occurred.
A critical part of the evidence to support that the 23 – year – old prisoner was buggered would be his medical report and thus far there is no medical report from the local health practitioners suggesting that Harding was buggered, rather they are claiming that his intestinal injuries are due to hernia.
The statements seen by Justice Kennard also prove that some level of force was used hence the criminal charges of assault for two of the ranks, iNews was told.
As part of the investigation, the Police Complaints Authority Chairman also requested that the police present him with a baton identical to the one that Harding allege was used on him by the police rank while he was in their custody.
Colwyn Harding in early January claimed that he was buggered with a baton while in the police custody in November 2013. His claims were reduced to being very questionable when health personnel stated that the injures which the young man sustained were in keeping with locked up hernia.
