Police investigators are searching for the 15-year-old boy at the centre of an alleged child solicitation case that has embroiled Office of the President’s Press and Publicity Officer Kwame McCoy, who has denied being the speaker on a recorded call engaging in an illicit conversation with the minor.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday told Stabroek News that the police force launched an investigation based on a report by McCoy, who handed over a copy of the recorded conversation. McCoy has claimed that the recording is a fabrication and that persons were out to “defame” his character.
Persaud explained that based on what McCoy reported, the police have determined that a crime may have been committed and they have since commenced looking for the boy to speak to him. However, checks at two locations have been unsuccessful. Contrary to a report in yesterday’s Stabroek News, the boy did not report to police. Stabroek News regrets the error.
In a statement issued last evening, police said that after an interview with McCoy on Monday, at his request the force has launched an investigation into the recorded conversation as well as on McCoy’s report that persons had imitated his voice and allegedly made calls to Kaieteur News. Police said that investigators contacted an employee at the Kaieteur News, who confirmed McCoy’s report about a conversation with someone purporting to be him and what the person had said. The Kaieteur News employee refused to give a statement in the matter, police added.
Persaud told Stabroek News that the police have received no other report on the issue from the child or anyone connected to him. While he admitted that the defamation claim by McCoy is an issue to be dealt with in a civil court, he pointed out that the scenario illustrated by McCoy in his report has provided a nexus to the fact that a criminal offence could have been committed and that was what the police were investigating. “We are looking for the boy to interview him to ascertain what is this story about him and Mr McCoy and to find out if a crime was committed,” Persaud stressed.
Telephone records have since logged a call from the number allegedly used by the underage boy to contact the Office of the President’s Press and Publicity Office. The call, made on September 9, 2009 was made to telephone number 223-7502 and lasted for 20 minutes, around the same length as the audio recording. A birth certificate, said to be that of the teenage male caller, lists his date of birth as August 18, 1994–making him 15 years old.
The recording has been broadcasted online at Benschop Radio, hosted by guyanaobservernews.org, every hour since Friday evening.
McCoy, who is also a member of the Rights of the Child Commission and a PPP/C Region Four RDC Councillor, since Saturday issued a statement in which he denied that it is his voice on the recording, and deemed it a clear fabrication aimed at “smearing my character and family name.” He said since he became a member of the commission he was reliably informed that there was a “certain group of persons out to get me at all cost[s] and I was warned to be careful. As recent as today [Saturday], someone attempted to impersonate me by contacting the Kaieteur News pretending to be Kwame McCoy and stated that I had tendered my resignation from the Office of the President as well as the Rights Commission based on the release of this recording,” the statement said. McCoy said he had been in contact with his attorneys and would take legal action against “anyone or media house that seek[s] to publish the recording and or any story that is being derived from same.”
On the recording, the two speakers discuss plans for a sexual liaison.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand, whose ministry nominated McCoy to the ROTC, told Stabroek News on Monday that McCoy has denied that it is his voice on the tape and that she herself has not heard the alleged conversation. “Everything I have heard on the issue is from the press,” the minister said adding that she could hardly pronounce on the authenticity of the taped conversation and as a result could not pronounce on its content. Manickchand’s ministry nominated McCoy to sit on the Rights of the Child Commission.
McCoy was appointed to the commission despite a major dispute between the government and opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) on his inclusion.
