The parents of the 10-year-old boy who was reportedly beaten by Berbice police for stealing have agreed to settle the matter even as a medical report said the child’s body bore “signs of brands inflicted with a flat object”.
The family’s attorney, Charrandass Persaud, told Stabroek News yesterday that he has a report listing the said injuries but Commander of ‘B’ Division/Assistant Com-missioner, Clinton Conway, said he too has a report which refutes those claims. When this newspaper contacted the Commander, he maintained that the child was not admitted to the hospital as a result of injuries he sustained but because he is asthmatic. The child’s family disputes these claims.
Conway said that an investigation has been launched into the incident. He said too that the child’s family did not make a report to him but he learnt of the incident “through the press and I sent an officer to take statements.” He said he sent for the boy’s family to hear their version of what occurred.
Meanwhile, Persaud said the family is no longer considering legal action at this stage as the rank who beat the child has “apologized for the excessive force he used on the child.” Persaud, who had said that he intended to pursue the matter, met with the Commander yesterday.
The family confirmed that the officer visited their Sisters Village home yesterday to offer an apology and has asked them to settle the matter. “The police tell we he sorry and he say he gat a family and he can lose he job. We don’t want to tek bread out of he mouth,” an aunt said. Besides, she added, the child was already traumatised by being locked up and tortured and “sending him to court would just complicate his young life more.” According to the woman they have not fixed a settlement but they think settling is the best move at this stage.
She said the child is showing signs that the ordeal has had a deep psychological impact on him and that he would need professional help. The woman also said the family does not want the child to come into contact with the neighbour who accused him of stealing so he is currently staying with his grandmother who resides in the same village.
The Grade Five, Friends Primary School student, who was hospitalized for ten days, began school again on Monday. The child told this newspaper that the police had beaten him with a belt, a pointer broom and a tamarind whip. He was “arrested” on January 1, along with his parents, and taken to the Sisters Village Police Station after a neighbour reported that the child had stolen money from her house while she was out. The child’s mother was sent home but the child and his father were kept in custody, in separate cells.
The child’s father, a hire car driver, had told this newspaper that around 3 am he heard the police beating the child in the top flat of the building and that he had heard his son “screaming.” He said he was sent home later in the morning but the police kept the child. He said he did not confront the police about why they were beating the boy as he was afraid.
The child’s mother and grandmother said when they went to the station around 10 am to take food for the boy the police beat him again, in their presence. They said the police stripped the boy to his underwear and ordered him to kneel on the floor. He also had to lift five heavy books and the grandmother said every time the books fell the police told him “straighten your hand and keep them in the air.” She said they spent half hour watching the torturing until the police told them to go home. All along she said “he was crying non-stop but we couldn’t do anything.”
The following day, the boy was taken to the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam in handcuffs. His mother said when she went to take food to him at the station “the police ask me if I don’t know me son gone to the hospital.” “When ah go and see him he said ‘mommy check me back’ and then ah see it black and blue all over,” she said. The child, who was placed under police guard for five days, had to lie on his stomach because of the injuries to his back.