-complainant refuses to testify
Four soldiers, who were accused of robbing a Region One mining camp last May, were freed after the virtual complainant (VC) declined to give evidence against them.
The matter was before Magistrate Allan Wilson at the Matthews Ridge Magistrate’s Court and it was dismissed last Thursday.
Lieutenant Lancelot Gordon, 21; Lance Corporal Teon Moffat, 22; Private Shawn Lord, 20 and Private Orwin Woodruffe, 20, first appeared before Magistrate Wilson in June, 2009. They were charged with robbery under arms. It was alleged that they robbed Brazilian miner Francisco Dos Silva at gun-point of 30 pennyweight of gold valued $246,000.
The soldiers were represented by attorneys Vic Puran and Gregory Gaskin. Puran and Gaskin had successfully obtained $100,000 bail for the men while the matter was ongoing. At the time of the bail application, Gaskin had argued that the charge was trumped up “by the Guyana Defence Force high command for public relations purposes” and that the evidence available did not support the charge.
He had also pointed to the questionable legal status of the Brazilian VC and said this made it unlikely that the matter would ever reach the stage for trial. Stabroek News had reported, based on information from a reliable source, that the VC was not here illegally since he was married to a Guyanese.
There were further hearings at Matthews Ridge in August and November of 2009 both of which the VC failed to attend. Applications were made on both occasions for dismissal of the case for want of prosecution. During the November hearing, Police Prosecutor Assistant Superintendent of Police Edmund Cooper advised the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions had instructed that all charges be withdrawn against Moffat but that an additional indictable charge of demanding with menace be instituted against the other three accused. However, last Thursday the VC appeared in court for the first time and declared that he had no desire or intention to pursue the matter nor did he wish to furnish any evidence against the three accused.
Magistrate Wilson, after inviting comments from ASP Cooper and Gaskin, dismissed the summary charge of robbery under arms and discharged the accused from the indictable charge of demanding with menace.
Following the allegations last year all four soldiers had been interdicted from duty in mid June, 2009. Lance Corporal Teon Moffat has recently been re-instated to duty with full benefits.
Stabroek News had reported on June 9, 2009 that the soldiers were picked out in an identification parade by two Brazilian miners, including the general manager of the mining camp, Dos Silva.
On June 3, 2009 GDF had issued a press statement in which it announced that it had handed over an officer and three ranks to the police following an allegation that they had robbed a mining camp at Five Star, Region One. The army had said that members of a GDF investigative team, who had received reports about a robbery, intercepted the patrol of one officer and three privates and found a quantity of gold and cash on them.
