Three ranks attached to the Turkeyen Police Station have been charged departmentally with negligence, over the brazen escape of a teenaged murder accused from their custody more than a week ago, Commander Balram Persaud said yesterday.
The trio, who include a female corporal who was in charge of the station at the time of the incident will go through a disciplinary trial which would be conducted by a police officer, Persaud told this newspaper when contacted.
The officers will remain on the job even as the trial is being conducted.
Asked about the hole through which the lad, Leon Paul managed to squeeze through unseen, the senior officer pointed out that “some work”, has to be done to the entire building.
When questioned as to why the prisoner was not in a cell, the police ranks had reported that the cells were a bit damp that day and as such a decision was taken not to place him in one.
However Persaud stated that that was no excuse for leaving the prisoner unsupervised in the general area outside the lock-ups.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Paul who hails from Dazzell Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara, appeared at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court last week and was remanded to the Camp Street prison. He was charged indictably with unlawful escape from police custody.
Paul is charged with the September 2, murder of Dexroy Dodson. He appeared before the Magistrate at the Cove and John Magistrate’s Court on January 28 and was remanded into police custody for court on February 10. He was being held at the station until his next court appearance, this newspaper was told.
He was discovered missing during an early morning routine check by ranks last Monday. The teen was handed over to ranks at the station by his mother around 10 pm that day.
A female rank was placed under close arrest but was subsequently released. A probe was then launched to ascertain how the lad got away since at least three ranks were on duty.
Persaud when contacted on the incident had told this newspaper that according to the ranks Paul was being kept in the general area outside the lock-ups.
There was a cell nearby where some work was being done on the sanitation facility, resulting in the removal of a toilet bowl.
He had said that the cell was padlocked from the outside but Paul somehow managed to pick the lock and enter the cell. He subsequently squeezed through the hole that was left as a result of the removal of the toilet bowl and escaped.
At the time of the escape the cell was not in use.