A father of two employed as a confectionery vendor and a 14-year-old held during a Joint Services operation in the Upper Berbice appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with the January 26 Lusignan murders.
Former wanted man, 20-year-old Mark Royden Williams, called Royden Durant or ‘Smallie’ of Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara and a 14-year-old boy of Strathspey Squatting Area, East Coast Demerara (ECD) who cannot be named for legal reasons were jointly charged with 11 murders. Williams was also charged with the murder of another man.
It is alleged that on January 26 at Lusignan, ECD the two accused murdered 48-year-old Clarence Thomas, his 12-year-old daughter Vanessa Thomas and his son Ron Thomas; 32-year-old Mohandai Gourdat and her two sons: four-year-old Seegobind Harrilall and ten-year-old Seegopaul Harrilall; 22-year-old Shazam Mohamed; 55-year-old Shaleem Baksh; Seecharran Rooplall, 56, his wife Dhanrajie Ramsingh, 52, and their 11-year-old daughter Raywattie Ramsingh. Further, it is alleged that on August 30, 2007 Williams murdered Kumar ‘Mango man’ Singh.
Williams and the boy listened quietly as Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle read the charges and explained that they were not required to plead.
Williams’s attorney Roger Yearwood told the court that his client is not Royden Durant and will not be answering to any charges made to that name. He then stated his client’s name as Roberto Royden Williams.
The prosecution then submitted that Royden Durant and Mark Royden Williams are names that the accused had given to police previously. They said too the names are two among many that the accused had used.
However, Yearwood maintained that those were not his client’s names the charge was subsequently amended before it was read to the accused.
Meanwhile the boy told the court that he was a third form student at the Buxton Community High. Both accused were remanded to prison and the matters were transferred to the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court for June 26.
Williams was captured at his cousin’s house in Sophia on Sunday. He has also been charged with the murder of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Lance Corporal Ivor Williams. Gunmen in Buxton shot and killed the soldier on January 23 when they engaged the soldiers on the Railway Embankment Road between Church of God and Company roads. The GDF vehicle had been returning to Camp Ayanganna from an administrative run in Berbice.
The Lusignan murders came three days after the attack on the ranks and mere hours after gunmen in a car shot at the Police Head-quarters in Eve Leary. It had been reported that observers believed that the Eve Leary attack was a diversionary ploy to focus the security forces’ attention in the city while the criminals created terror on the East Coast.
Just over three weeks after the Lusignan killings, gunmen struck at Bartica though security had been heightened countrywide. On the February 17 at about 9.40 pm, some 20 gunmen attacked Bartica killing 12 persons including three policemen during an hour-long strafing.
To date, miners Clebert Reece, 30, and 44-year-old Roger Simon, a father of nine, have been charged with those murders. In addition to Williams and the boy, James Anthony Hyles has been charged with the Lusignan murders.
