Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday said local investigators have been in contact with their counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago to apprehend a Guyanese woman who is wanted for carrying out an acid attack on another woman here four years ago.
Persaud said that on October 15, 2009, the police force sent information on Onika Sinclair, who is wanted for burning of Joann Lynch. Sinclair has been charged in absentia with the crime but the case has been stalled.
Persaud did not volunteer what follow up action has been taken or whether the T&T police responded. He explained that the local police made contact with Interpol in Trinidad and informed them that the woman was wanted and that she may be hiding out in Trinidad. Persaud said police in Trinidad responded and requested information, which was subsequently faxed to them.
On Monday, Lynch told Stabroek News that she found Sinclair on the social network site Facebook and realized that the woman was in Trinidad. With the assistance of friends, she contacted the police in Trinidad but was told that a formal request had to be made by local authorities. Lynch said while some information was received by authorities here, Trinidadian authorities said they needed a formal letter from Guyana requesting the arrest and this has not been done. The frustrated Lynch said she had been sent in circles by local police, with no one giving her any real information.
It is unclear if Sinclair, who shut down her profile on Facebook after Lynch sent her a message, is still in Trinidad. There are new reports that the woman was in Suriname recently. Sinclair was charged in her absence months after the attack and after the matter was called once the prosecutor asked that the case be put down indefinitely. Monday Lynch questioned why an arrest warrant was not issued for Sinclair.
Lynch’s frustration was further compounded after she was recently told by ranks at the Bartica Police Station that the file cannot be found. Lynch was subsequently forced to give two statements to the police in Bartica. Persaud, when asked about the report of the missing file yesterday, said: “I am not aware that the file is missing.” Asked why Sinclair could not have been tried in her absence, Persaud said once a person has not pleaded to a charge the matter cannot be tried in their absence.
Yesterday, Lynch was upbeat. Since the story appeared in yesterday’s edition of this newspaper the outpouring of support she received from persons locally and overseas has been heartening.
She said she hoped that she will soon get justice and finally be able to move on with her life.
Lynch was burnt in June 2006 by Sinclair, who was once the common-law partner of her then boyfriend. Lynch was in the apartment of the man, Mark Moore, when Sinclair entered using a spare key and threw a coffee bottle filled with acid in her face.