Four men who police reportedly caught in the act of sodomising a girl appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday and Magistrate Oneidge Waldron-Allicock released two of them on bail and remanded the other two.
Dexter Griffith, 28, of 465 East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme and Ryan Sookdeo, 24, of 153 Critchlow Avenue, South Ruimveldt Gardens were refused bail, while Eon Prince, 22, of 422 East Ruimveldt, and Kwesi Boyce, 25, of 448 East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme were granted bail in the sum of $100,000 each.
It is alleged that last Monday in Georgetown the quartet buggered the female. A large crowd comprising mainly relatives of the accused converged on the court as the matter was called. The men remained emotionless as the charge was read to them.
Attorney-at-law Deborah Backer entered an appearance for the quartet. Backer in a bail application said Griffith was a carpenter; Prince, a mason with a one-year-old child; Boyce a painter and Sookdeo, a former President’s College student, was pursuing a degree in forestry at the University of Guyana. She said the accused had no previous convictions and had all been gainfully employed and lived with their parents.
The defence counsel argued that while the offence was a serious one, the overriding purpose of bail was to ensure that the accused returned to court when they were required. She requested that bail be granted in a reasonable sum.
Police Prosecutor Hugh Winter in objecting to bail cited the prevalence of the offence.
He declared that the accused were caught by police in the act at the home of one of the accused. He said the virtual complainant (VC) was known to Sookdeo and it was he who took her to the place where the act was committed. Winter further declared that the VC had pointed out the men as the ones who had committed the act on her.
After listening to them, the magistrate granted bail to Prince and Boyce and remanded the others. They will return to court next Tuesday at Court Six.
