Three police officers have been placed under close arrest after a 16- year-old boy alleged that he was sodomised by the police on Sunday night at an outpost in front of the Stabroek Market.
The police yesterday announced that an investigation was underway and that the ranks have been placed under close arrest. In addition, the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) yesterday launched an investigation into the allegation by the teen, who has said the police took him into the outpost around 9 pm and allegedly sodomised him.
“We have confirmed that the boy was in NOC (the New Opportunity Corps) and our people are investigating the allegation,” Head of the CC&PA Ann Greene told Stabroek News.
There have been reports that the boy was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital for a medical examination and a detailed report of his allegation was handed over to the police. According to a source close to the investigation, the teen would frequent the Stabroek Market at nights.
The allegation has come as police have been placed under close scrutiny for the treatment of detainee Colwyn Harding, 23, who accused a policeman attached to the Timehri Police Station of raping him with a condom covered baton.
Zenita Nicholson, a representative of the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimina-tion (SASOD), one of the groups that has been leading the efforts to get justice for Harding, said yesterday that the organisation was utterly outraged by the allegation of another human rights violation. “I’m outraged…like seriously again and again close arrest?” said Nicholson.
She stated that investigations conducted in such sensitive cases should be carried out independent of the Guyana Police Force, since there is “clear evidence that the force is very defensive of their police.”
“I am of the view that clearly there are corrupt police and they should not be immune to the discipline,” she stated.
Alliance For Change (AFC) Parliamentarian Cathy Hughes also voiced her outrage yesterday, while stating that the transformation of police officers into criminals is representative of the government. “It is a disturbing trend and it seems to be getting worse and worse and our tolerance as citizens of Guyana seems to be just becoming acceptable. We now don’t have the outrage that we used to feel,” she said at a press conference.
“This is the umpteenth complaint against the police and at the same time, serious crimes are on the increase. This is now a very untenable situation and citizens really should not allow this to continue,” Hughes stated renewing a call for the Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee to step down.
