| The Guyana Police Force has admitted that there was a lack of proper supervision at the Timehri Police Station and improper communication with respect to the handling of detainee Colwyn Harding.Harding has accused a policeman of sodomising him with a condom-covered baton after brutally beating him about his body following his arrest on break-and-enter and larceny allegations.Crime Chief Seelall Persaud (second right) makes a point during yesterday’s press conference. Others in photo are (from left) Commander George Vyphius, Asst. Comm. David Ramnarine, Asst. Comm. Balram Persaud,Cheap Jerseys From China, Commissioner Leroy Brumell and PRO Ivelaw Whittaker.Harding claimed that he was beaten and sodomised by a policeman in the presence of his (policeman’s) colleagues,Cheap NFL Jerseys, who failed to caution him about his actions.“There was some lax in the supervision,” Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell admitted at a press conference yesterday.“You see, once somebody gets assaulted in the presence of other people and no action is taken there is a lack in supervision, a lack in many things,” Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, who was also at the press conference, added.The breakdown started with the casual nature in which the matter was treated.Although the alleged incident occurred in mid-November last year, the rank who was allegedly involved was only placed under close arrest earlier this week, days after the revelation first appeared in this newspaper.Brumell told the press conference that he was only made aware of the incident when he received a text message from Harding’s mother around the second week in December, informing him that her son was assaulted.Divisional Commander George Vyphuis said that he was only made aware of the incident when the Commissioner contacted him and instructed him to mount an investigation.They both claimed that the report was just a matter of assault and they had no idea that the situation was as grave as is now being reported, hence the delay in following up on the matter more vigorously.“I depend on the Commanders to give me a feedback. Remember, when I got it, I got it as an assault and I told him (Vyphuis) to look at it. I did not know the nature… but then, I did not check with him, neither did he tell me anything,” Commissioner Brumell admitted.But Vyphuis explained that after receiving information about the assault, he immediately contacted the Officer-in-Charge of the Timehri Sub-DivisionHe said that during the course of the investigation, the Sub-Divisional Officer informed him that they were dealing with a complaint against a rank at the Timehri Police Station.According to Vyphuis,Wholesale Jerseys, based on that information, “Immediately the matter was moved from Timehri to the Complaints Section at Brickdam. This matter still remains a complaint.”The Commander said that he only learnt about the sodomy allegation last week when Harding’s mother visited his office and played a recording with her son making the allegation.“I knew nothing before then…it was until after I spoke to the mother, then I had a clear picture of what allegedly transpired at Timehri,” Vyphuis said.“At no time did the mother ever mention to me that a baton with a condom was used on her son…I only learnt about this from a recording,” he stressed.But his position was hotly disputed by one of his colleagues who told Kaieteur News that all matters of assault should be treated with the utmost urgency.“Any allegation of police brutality must be treated as a very serious allegation. We view assault on police ranks seriously, likewise,Cheap Jerseys, any allegation that a police assaulted a civilian in custody is also aggravating and should be investigated forthwith,wholesale nfl jerseys,” another police officer informed this newspaper.Crime Chief Persaud in clarifying the matter admitted that there were some practices that were not upheld by those who were dealing with the matter in the initial stages of the investigations.“There were some deficiencies in our practices.”He said that if when the initial statement was taken from Harding’s mother,Cheap Jerseys Online, the severity of the allegation was ascertained, it should have been reported immediately to the force’s hierarchy.Instead, Harding spent weeks in the Camp Street prison until his condition worsened.Secondly, Persaud stated that there is a practice within the Joint Service that whenever something like this happens, the prison would usually contact the police; but this did not happen. |
