Earl Melville, the prisoner who it is suspected drank a quantity of formalin on Friday last, was yesterday sentenced to a period of four years imprisonment after Acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry found him guilty on a drug related charge.
Melville was found guilty of trafficking in narcotics by Magistrate Sewnarine-Beharry on Friday last and was awaiting sentence when he ingested the poisonous substance while in the holding cell at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
When he appeared at court yesterday, the magistrate told the man that she will hand down her sentence which had to be halted on Friday after he was rushed to the hospital to be treated.
When asked if he wanted to say anything before being sentenced, Melville asked the court to take into consideration the fact that he had been a remand prisoner of the past eight months and begged for leniency and mercy.
He said too that because of the level of victimisation and inhumane treatment meted out to him at the Georgetown Prison so far, he was afraid that he would not live to the end of his sentence.
“I know I will not make it out of prison alive,” he said.
He also asked the magistrate to order an investigation into the disappearance of his cell phone with which he was making contact with friends, his ID card and bank card which he said he had in his possession as a prisoner.
According to Melville, he was told by other inmates that while he was in court, a police officer had removed the items from his bag which had to be left in the chute once he was taken into the court room.
Upon hearing that the prisoner was in possession of a cell phone, the visibly displeased magistrate promptly demanded an explanation from Prosecutor Stephen Telford who in shock said that he was ignorant of those details.
The acting chief magistrate then ordered that an investigation be launched into the prisoner’s use of the cell phone while behind bars.
