Almost a week after it was made public that he was living with the child he is accused of raping, Vibert Henry on Sunday moved out of the Canal Backdam, Port Kaituma home.
Stabroek News has been reliably informed that the man, his reputed wife, who is a relative of the 12-year-old child and her ten-year-old sister, left on Sunday afternoon. The two sisters have moved in with an aunt who lives in the area.
Last Friday, Director of the Child Care & Protection Agency (CC&PA) Ann Greene said that the agency would have sought to remove the children from the region and bring them to the city. She said that the man should not have been living in the same home with the girls and while the welfare officer in the region was unable to confirm whether he was indeed living in the home, the children would be removed.
A resident had told Stabroek News that when the welfare officer visited, the man ran away. His wife had spoken to the officer, who did not go up into the house at the river side.
It is not clear whether, with this recent development, the CC&PA will still remove the children. Efforts to contact Greene yesterday proved futile.
Henry, who is originally from Moruca, appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court last year charged with raping the then 11-year-old child. The prosecutor at the time indicated that a similar charge would have been laid against him in relation to the younger sister but it is not clear if this was done. The man had apologised to the court for his actions when he appeared. The matter was later transferred to the Matthew’s Ridge Magistrate’s Court. While some residents claim that the man was not attending court, police in Port Kaituma have said that there is no arrest warrant out for him.
After he was released on bail, Henry returned to the house and his wife and children later joined him. The sisters, who were staying with their grandparents, also returned to the house and residents had complained that the children were left with the man alone while his wife worked.
Henry was charged last year after residents had complained publicly to this newspaper about the sloth in the police investigation.
