Reports are that around 3 am on Tuesday April 6, Alastair Fraser, 29 of Number 29 Village, West Coast Berbice attempted to murder Winston Rodney, 39, of Number 28 Village.
Attorney-at-law, James Bond, filling in for his colleague Joel Persid Edmond, submitted that Fraser acted in self-defence.
He said Fraser and Rodney had been at a banquet at the Number 29 Church Hall when they had a dispute. Bond claimed that Fraser acted in self-defence and that Rodney was the aggressor. He argued that the defendant attacked his client with a cutlass and he in turn pulled out a stave from a picket fence and dealt him a blow.
Fraser, Bond noted, is a married father of three children, and the case was the first time he was before the court for any offence.
Police Prosecutor Sergeant Grace Bristol asked that bail be refused, on the grounds that Rodney is still in a serious condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). After listening to the submissions, Magistrate Hawke refused bail for Fraser and ordered him to return to court on April 15 for bail review. The magistrate also requested a full medical report from the hospital.
Rodney, who was bleeding profusely from his wounds, was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital.
He was subsequently transferred to the GPH and is a patient at the Intensive Care Unit. His sister, Nordia Rodney had told Stabroek News that a head scan from the hospital proved that a bone broke in her brother’s head and is “resting on his brain.” The doctors said surgery was required.
