A 20-year-old prisoner, who says she was given permission by a corporal to go and see her sick child was remanded to prison on Thursday when she appeared before Magistrate Melissa Robertson Ogle in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on a charge of escaping from lawful custody.
Onica Williams also known as Linda of Lot 91 Sideline Dam, La Penitence allegedly escaped from the East La Penitence Police Station earlier this month. She was represented by attorney-at-law Adrian Thompson.
In his client’s defence, Thompson told the court that Williams, a mother of one, received information that her child, who was still nursing, was not well. According to him, the defendant was given permission by a certain police corporal to go see her sick child. Afterwards, Williams panicked and didn’t return to police custody for two days, but she called her lawyer who advised her to return to the police station which she says she did. The attorney pleaded with the magistrate for reasonable bail for his client.
However, the prosecutor said the statements made in Williams defence were not all true. On the day in question, the accused was cleaning and taking out garbage at the police station, tasks the prosecutor pointed out she shouldn’t be doing, when she took the opportunity to escape.
It was a few days later that the police found her at Lot 60 West Ruimveldt. Attention was brought to the fact that Williams’s baby was taken to the police station on a number of occasions so that she could feed and spend time with the child.
In December last Williams was arrested over the theft of a cellular phone and had escaped from the police while being escorted to the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court. The vehicle, which the woman was in, collided with another in front of the court and this gave her the diversion she needed to escape.
Williams had been charged with obstructing the course of justice when she ran dodging in and out of traffic, removing her clothes as she went.
The accused has been remanded to prison and the matter has been moved to Court 6 to be continued on February 12.
