Sherwin Glen, the handcuffed convict who escaped from the Wales Magistrate’s Court on Thursday moments after he was sentenced to prison, turned up at the Wales Police Station several hours later in the company of a relative.
He appeared before Magistrate Fazil Azeez at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning on a charge of escaping from lawful custody and after pleading guilty was sentenced to one year behind bars. He will return to court on August 21 in connection with other matters that he faces.
A senior police officer told Stabroek News that the 19-year-old Patentia, West Bank Demerara man who had escaped into nearby cane fields was found in Georgetown and an uncle subsequently handed him over to the police at Wales around 10:30 pm on Thursday. At the time of his return, Glen was not wearing the handcuffs he had on at the time of his flight.
Reports are that sometime after noon on Thursday the presiding magistrate sentenced Glen to one year’s imprisonment for unlawful wounding. He also pleaded not guilty to a charge of simple larceny and was told that he had to return to court next Thursday to answer to a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm.
After adjourning the matter this newspaper was told, Glen was being escorted to the court lock-ups by a policeman when he made a mad dash for freedom just as he was about to enter the inquiries office of the police station located in the same compound.
At the time he was wearing handcuffs and he managed to run into the cane fields located a short distance away. Several ranks pursued the man but failed to apprehend him.
In their first statement on the matter yesterday, the police said that Glen had been earlier arraigned before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton for assault causing actual bodily harm and simple larceny on Shakella Motilall, 51, of Patentia Housing Scheme on July 31, 2008 and felonious wounding committed on Krishna Ramnarine, 44, of Goed Intent, West Bank Demerara on July 8, 2008. He had been placed on $10,000 station bail but had gone into hiding. He was arrested on August 12.
“Glen was being escorted to the station lock-ups in handcuffs when he pushed down the rank and ran out of the station compound along the sideline dam into the canefield and escaped despite being (pursued) by ranks”, the police said.
Glen’s escape was the third of its kind for the police in the last two months. Jermaine `Skinny’ Charles who squeezed through loose floor boards in the Sparendaam Police Station lock-ups and murder accused Trevor Major who picked his handcuffs and managed to escape from a locked prison van on his way to the Camp Street prison, are still at large.