The teen boy, who has accused three police officers of raping him at a police outpost, was arrested yesterday after he climbed on to the roofs of two Robb Street properties, including the Stabroek News building, to evade an abusive relative who claimed he had fabricated the allegations.
The young man’s actions attracted hundreds of spectators who flooded the street, screaming at him not to jump even as he cried out that he was not a criminal and that he was scared that the police would hurt him.
It took responding firefighters and police nearly an hour to seize him after he had stopped pacing and seemed
to be considering jumping. After being shackled and forcibly removed from the roof, he was taken to the Brickdam Police Station, although a Human Services Ministry official had said they would be pushing from him to undergo psychiatric evaluation at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Up to press time last evening, however, the boy had been released from custody and was once more on the streets.
As a result of the teen’s allegations, three police officers have been placed under close arrest while a criminal investigation is underway. The Child Care and Protection Agency has also launched an investigation into the accusation.
Though awaiting the outcome of the probe, Home Ministry yesterday declared that it was alarming that the police force has found itself further embattled in wake of the allegations by detainee Colwyn Harding that he was raped with a baton during his arrested last year. It also urged the police force to pay closer attention to its recruitment policies to guard against the recruitment of perverts.
The teen had contacted a Stabroek News reporter yesterday to voice his frustration that he was not getting justice and wanted his story to be heard, just days after his allegations were made public. It was while waiting to be interviewed by the reporter that the relative—an uncle—launched a verbal assault on him, shouting that he was liar.
“The boy came, walked into Stabroek News and said that he wanted to speak to the reporter who spoke to him but I told him that she was not there and that he could wait a while but he said that he couldn’t and left,” Stabroek News security guard Alistair Graham said.
“A couple minutes later, he came running back with his slippers in his hands and he told me two men want to beat him and that he was the boy that had the story in the papers…so I tell him that they can’t do you anything that you are safe,” added.
Graham stated that at that point he saw two men running up to the teen but he chased them away. “But then one of them called someone and the bus pull up and the uncle come out yelling at him and calling him a liar,” he added, noting that the boy became scared and uncomfortable when the man started calling him names and recounting his sex life to everyone present.
“His uncle come in a bus with them men to beat him—that is the only thing that caused him to end up on that roof. They scared that boy,” the man said, adding that another reporter who saw him told him to sit and wait in a waiting area outside of the newsroom. It was then the boy disappeared and people started to scream that someone was on the roof.
While atop the roof of the newspaper, the teen paced and screamed wildly to onlookers that he was raped by police. He was seen breaking a bottle and cutting his wrist while rocking back and forth on the roof of the neighbouring Police Consumer’s Co-op Society building. He was crying and screaming at the crowd. It was the same broken bottle he used to ward off police and firefighters who were trying without success to get him to safety. The firefighter for some time appeared to be unable to handle to situation until a plain clothes police officer scaled the roof and grabbed him from behind.
Two other police and firefighters quickly slapped cuffs on his wrists and feet, dragged him down a ladder while he fought for his freedom. His screams could be heard throughout the Stabroek News building.
“I’m not lying! Why would I be lying? They want me…they bugger me. I’m not lying,” the boy charged as reporters fired question at him.
A neighbour, who identified herself only as “Lisa” said that the teen was a troubled boy. She said that he had called her earlier that morning and told her to go to Robb Street. “I don’t know what is going on with …. Is this what he called me for? To see him do this… a couple days ago he said that he wanna kill himself; everything he worrying about now,” she said, while noting that the teen had a troubled background. “His father use to beat him mercilessly and then he went to NOC [the New Opportunity Corps]…he only come out a year now.”
On Wednesday, Head of the Child Care and Protection Agency Ann Greene, while confirming the launch of an investigation, had noted that the boy had been in the NOC.
Chief Probation and Social Service Officer of the Human Services Ministry Forbes Monroe yesterday said that probation officers were working with the teen. “What has resulted in him getting up there I cannot say but what I do know for a fact is that he will be taken to the hospital. The Ministry of Human Services is working with him and at this time we will push for psychiatric evaluation,” he said.
He stated that he was unaware of the results of the boy’s medical examination at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corpora-tion (GPHC) but said that the matter was being investigated. However, this newspaper was told last evening that the teen was released from the Brickdam Station, where he was held after being arrested.
“Alarming”
Meanwhile, an official statement yesterday afternoon from the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the recent allegation was “alarming” coming at a time when the police force is struggling to regain public confidence.
Nearly three weeks ago, three ranks at the Timehri Police Station were accused of allegedly raping 23-year-old Colwyn Harding by pushing a condom covered baton into his anus. An official investigation was ordered into the case, which saw a public outcry and action is being awaited on its findings.
The Ministry yesterday called on the police force to pay closer attention to its recruitment procedures and screening practices when recruiting civilians into its ranks “so as to ensure that perverts are not allowed entry into the organization.”
“If proven guilty, such elements must be weeded out from the ranks of the Guyana Police Force,” it said of the ranks at the centre of the latest allegations, while noting that they would not be worthy of wearing police uniforms.
The Ministry, saying it stands ready to assist in surmounting challenges, also urged the force to “come to grips with its administrative, and operational deficiencies” and to embrace the current reforms efforts.
“I think it is really sad that it had to come to this. We were just investigating who the 16-year old boy would be,” said Joel Simpson, Coordinator of Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), who further stated that reports surfaced in their investigation revealed that the boy suffered continuous harassment from the police. Simpson was among those gathered after the teen took to the roofs.
“…That just add more claims to police brutality in the last couple of weeks. The harassment could have driven him to this point,” Simpson said, while watching the boy clamber roof to roof.
SASOD officials have said that investigations conducted in such sensitive cases should be carried out independent of the Guyana Police Force in light of the “very defensive” posture that the force has taken regarding the conduct of its ranks.
