Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene yesterday said there has been no report that Bartica massacre accused Dennis ‘Anaconda’ Williams was “roughed up” during interrogation but he promised an investigation if a complaint were made.
Asked about the allegations made by the man’s lawyer, which were revealed at a court hearing on Monday, Greene told reporters at a joint services briefing, “I would think that if the lawyer would have made a statement to the court, he would have produced before the magistrate evidence of whatever has happened. And once that is the case then we would order an investigation.”
But he said the issue has not been drawn to his attention. “I have not been told that this Dennis Williams’s lawyer has officially complained to the police or that the magistrate has ordered an investigation into this matter.”
Greene pointed out that once a complaint is made or the court makes an order, the force will launch an investigation.
Police had said that Williams, who was arrested for last week’s $17.2M GuySuCo payroll heist, was identified as a member of the Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins gang and linked him to the February 17 massacre at Bartica during which 12 persons including policemen were killed. The man was subsequently charged with the murders and when he appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court his lawyer, Adrian Thompson, stated that his client had several marks about his body which resulted from being “tortured and not just roughed-up” by the police.
Williams raised his t-shirt and displayed several bruises on his back and cigarette burn marks about his body.
Thompson added that the police placed a black bag over Williams’s head to force a confession statement from him and it was under such circumstances that he eventually admitted to the crimes. Thompson said his client should have never been “touched” by the police but only brought before the court on evidence that they had against him.
He emphasised that his client was innocent, since, according to him, “persons don’t normally confess to things like that [Bartica massacre].”
However, Prosecutor Sherwin Matthews said he was not aware that Williams was tortured but added that police are allowed to take “certain measures” against the accused in order to squeeze information out of him.
