Colwyn Harding, who had accused a police constable of raping him with a baton, was yesterday freed of a charge of robbery with violence due to the consistent absence of the complainant during the trial.
It was alleged that Harding, on July, 9, 2014, at Georgetown, robbed Sherry-Ann Hope of a quantity of cash and five cell phones, all totalling $390,000 in value, and immediately before or after used personal violence on her.
He had denied the charge and was released on $75,000 bail at the first hearing before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.
Although Prosecutor Bharat Mangru did not give details about the charge, he revealed that the attack took place outside the Ashmin’s Store on High Street.
Hope was repeatedly absent during the trial, which was conducted before Magistrate
Judy Latchman at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court Three, and the prosecution was unsuccessful in summoning the relevant witnesses.
Attorney Adrian Thompson, who appeared in association with attorney Nigel Hughes, yesterday asked for the dismissal of the charge after the prosecution could not produce the witnesses once more. The charge was subsequently dismissed.
The trial had begun in January with the testimony of Inspector Phillip Bowman, who had told the court that Harding, armed with a cutlass, exited a white car in front of Ashmin’s building on Hadfield Street, approached Hope, and dealt her several chops about her body before relieving her of $30,000 and a quantity of cell phones.
But attorney Hughes had indicated to the court that the defence was in possession of alibi statements which had been handed over to the police. He said the statements substantiate that his client was elsewhere at the time of the robbery.
During that hearing, Prosecutor Shellon Daniels had made an application for a medical certificate to be tendered and used in evidence but the application was denied after the court found inconsistencies with information on the document. Magistrate Latchman, after examining the document, discovered that it did not bear the signature of a doctor. In addition, while the crime occurred on July 9, 2014, and the certificate indicated that the medical was not done until September 19, 2014.
Harding’s allegation that a police constable rammed a condom-covered baton up his anus, had fuelled public outrage last year.
Following a highly-publicised investigation, in June, 2014, police officers Devin Singh and Roslyn Tilbury-Douglas were charged with assaulting Harding sometime between November 1 and November 13, 2013 at the Timehri Police Station.
Singh was placed on $200,000 bail while Tilbury-Douglas was placed on $100,000 bail.
