Magistrate Nigel Hawke was tied, gagged and left on his bathroom floor early yesterday morning as a robber armed with an AK-47 reigned terror in his Non Pariel home for approximately 45 minutes.
As the magistrate struggled to free hands tightly bound behind his back, the bandit escorted his wife, Attorney-at-law Donelle Hawke, around their home in search of cash, jewellery and other valuables.
The attack was yesterday condemned by the Magis-trates’ Association of Guyana (MAG), which expressed “grave concern” about the need for security for members of the magistracy. The association has demanded an urgent meeting with Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee and Police Commissioner Henry Greene.
In a press release issued last evening, police said the robbery occurred around 12.30 am at Section ‘B’, Non Pariel East Coast Demerara. Magistrate Hawke and his wife were attacked and robbed by a man armed with a firearm. Investigations, according to the police, have revealed that the victims were at home when they were confronted by the attacker who had managed to gain entry to the building. They were held at gunpoint, the magistrate bound, after which the armed man carted off a laptop, a digital camera, two cell phones, a quantity of jewellery worth about $350,000 and $15,000 cash.
Stabroek News understands that police have a potential suspect but up to press time last night no one had been arrested.
Police had already visited the scene when Stabroek News arrived at the magistrate’s home after 2 pm yesterday. Magistrate Hawke, lines of fatigue and worry etched on his face, was clearly still traumatized.
While a lone man had invaded their home, sending fear crawling up their spines, the magistrate said his wife overheard the attacker speaking to someone. This, he reasoned, indicated that there might have been another man acting as sentry in the yard.
The Hawkes have lived in the area for about three years and were at home working some time between 12.30 am and 1 am yesterday when they were attacked. It was Mrs Hawke, the magistrate related, who first saw the gunman, the lower portion of his face concealed by a piece of cloth, walking up the stairway in the house. The magistrate reasoned that the bandit had gained entry through the door of the upper flat balcony, since the rest of the building had been properly secured earlier. “I was in the washroom when I saw her [his wife] coming in the bedroom with the gunman right behind her,” he recalled yesterday. “He [the gunman] put me in the bathroom and tied me up… he placed the gun to my head but I’m not sure if it was loaded.”
Hawke said the gunman gagged him and tied cloth around his face; as a result he could not breathe at one point. However, after he indicated his discomfort the gunman adjusted the bindings. The magistrate remembered his wife repeatedly begging their attacker: “Don’t kill him”. And he overheard the gunman reply that he wouldn’t.
The magistrate told this newspaper that he did not believe he and his spouse were targeted. His wife, he said, told him the gunman had said he was sent to kill her husband. However, the attacker later asked what the magistrate did for a living.
“I don’t believe he was sent to kill me because he asked my wife what I did for a living…it was clearly a random attack,” the magistrate told Stabroek News.
During the time they lived in the neighbourhood, the magistrate said, he’d felt safe. People in the area, he added, were not even aware of his job title. However, the attack has robbed the Hawkes of their sense of security.
Stabroek News learnt from Magistrate Hawke, who sits in Courts Two and Eight at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, that he did not have a security guard. When questioned whether this should be provided by the state, the magistrate explained that security should be part of his job package. However, he was promised that a special rank from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) would be permanently deployed to his home from 3 pm yesterday.
Meanwhile, in a press statement issued several hours after the robbery, the Magistrates’ Association strongly condemned the attack and raised the issue concerning the security of all magistrates and other judicial officers. “There is grave concern among all magistrates at this time,” the release stated, since several efforts have been made to address the security of magistrates. “A detailed security memorandum was prepared by the association since 11 October 2006 and sent to the Chancellor of the Judiciary and a copy was later forwarded Commissioner of Police,” it added. However, no action has been taken with regard to any of the recommendations in that memorandum.
Magistrates “at first instance,” according to the association, deal with 90 per cent of criminal proceedings and as a consequence are constantly targeted by criminals. These officers of the judiciary, and in some cases their relatives, are threatened, abused and attacked both in and out of the courtrooms. “This must not be allowed to continue,” MAG stated.
The association met around 10 am yesterday and has requested an urgent meeting with Rohee and Greene. “We hope they would recognize the urgency of meeting with magistrates to avert any hiccups in the administration of justice. Magistrates in all jurisdictions are resolved to take this matter to another level should our concerns remain unaddressed,” the association further said.
Efforts made to contact the Police Commissioner last evening for a comment were futile. However, in an invited comment last evening Rohee said he was aware of the incident but had not up to that time seen the release issued by the association. “We have to consider what to do but we will definitely do something,” the minister stated when asked what action his ministry would be taking to address the issue of providing magistrates with security.
