At the Springlands Court yesterday a former police officer attached to the Springlands Police Station was sentenced to two months imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting a minor. Gary Verwayne, 26, of Springlands, who was dismissed from duty shortly after committing the offence on the 15-year-old girl on October 22, 2009 was represented by Senior Counsel Marcel Crawford. In his plea of mitigation, Crawford asked for a non-custodial sentence for his client and asked the magistrate to be lenient.
The lawyer also submitted that his client was already punished by being dismissed and that sending him to prison is tantamount to punishing him for the same offence twice.
In presenting the facts of the case, Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Michael Grant told the court the girl was arrested for wandering and was placed on a bench in the Enquiries Office.
He said Verwayne then took her into the Domestic Violence room, placed her to lie on a bench and proceeded to lie on top of her.
At this stage, he said, the girl “pushed him away” and ran out of the room and raised an alarm. The following day she reported the matter to a senior officer. Before imposing the sentence, Magistrate Persaud rebuked the defendant for his actions, reminding him that the victim was a minor and that he should have protected her. Meanwhile the girl who was subsequently found guilty of wandering has been sentenced to four years at the New Opportunity Corps in Essequibo.
