Top Cop Henry Greene yesterday said that a call from former police commissioner Winston Felix for him to resign in the wake of an abuse allegation comes as no surprise, since the two had previous issues.
“He has an axe to grind,” he told Stabroek News last evening when contacted. He stressed that he is not surprised at Felix’s stance pointing out that before he resigned Felix had told people that he [Greene] had bugged his office.
“I don’t think he [Felix] has the credibility to call on me to resign,” he added.
Pressed further on the recent abuse allegation made by an East Coast Demerara woman, Greene told this newspaper that he is consulting with his lawyers at the moment and as such had no comment to make.
The 34-year old mother of two alleged that she was sexually abused by the Top Cop on the night of November 22 after she sought his assistance in resolving a police matter.
This is not the first time that Greene has been at the centre of such a controversy. In 1974, a female rank had accused him of sexual abuse, a source told Stabroek News. The source explained that at the time Greene was either a cadet officer or an assistant superintendent stationed in Berbice. After the complaint by the woman, who was a special constable, a number of senior ranks intervened and the matter eventually petered out. Greene, the source said, was sent on leave following the complaint before being transferred to Georgetown.
Over the years, the source told Stabroek News, allegations were made against Greene, but nothing ever came out of those matters.
Then in 1994, Greene allegedly inflicted a beating on a woman during a function at the Police Officers’ Mess Hall, Eve Leary, and again nothing came of the matter. The source said that Greene was involved in a relationship with the policewoman, who was transferred to Georgetown following problems with her husband. It was after she arrived in the city that she and Greene started a relationship.
The source said the alleged assault took place at a Queen’s College reunion at the Officer’s Mess, organised by then Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis. Lewis and Greene are QC old boys.
A current assistant police commissioner and several ranks went to the woman’s rescue and parted the two. The source said that the incident was publicized in the media and Greene was sent on leave.
Greene later appeared before former Home Affairs minister Ronald Gajraj, who was at the time the Chairman of the Police Service Commission. The source said it is unclear what happened after that but in the end nothing came of the matter.
On Tuesday, a woman provided an account to the media in the presence of her attorney, Nigel Hughes, of the incident which she stated was committed by Greene at a city hotel. She said that she sought Greene’s assistance in retrieving a mobile phone which the police had taken possession of in a matter she had been involved in.
The woman alleged that after promising to assist her in retrieving her phone, Greene drove to a hotel in the city and after putting on a hat and brandishing a gun demanded she enter a room, labeled Room 1 at the Broad Street, Charlestown hotel.
The woman alleged that the Top Cop then assaulted her. She recalled the Top Cop answering his mobile phone once during the episode, in which he responded with a series of affirmatives.
She said he told her after the phone conversation that it was the “president who called’ in connection with the removal of barricades from the GECOM headquarters in Kingston. She said he later called someone and instructed them to remove the ranks from the police barricades, stating “waste of man power.”
The woman said that after the incident Greene warned her against telling anyone or visiting a medical institution or doctor in connection with the matter. She said that he had been calling her for several days from a mobile number, which she provided as 699-0870. She said that Greene wrote the number at the back of his card and told her that only government officials knew the number.
The woman said that several days after the incident, another senior police officer called her mobile phone and requested her to meet with a senior government functionary at the Office of the President to discuss the issue but she declined. She said that the police officer told her that she should visit the government functionary alone “with no family or anybody.”
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud has since said that an investigation into the matter has been launched. He said that there is nothing in the Police Act and Standing Orders that indicated that once criminal allegations are levelled against the Top Cop he should be interdicted from duty pending the outcome of the investigation or should resign.
There have also been calls for an independent body to investigate the matter as it would not be appropriate for his own ranks to investigate him.
