Two miners were yesterday sentenced to 24 months in jail by a city magistrate for beating a boat operator with a piece of wood after he left them stranded up the Potaro River.
The courtroom of Magistrate Fabayo Azore heard that on November 11, at Princeville Backdam, Potaro, Aaron Paul, 24, and Imran Peters, 21, of Princeville, Potaro, unlawfully and maliciously wounded Calvin De Santos, with intent to cause grievous or bodily harm. The two men pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read to him.
According to the police prosecutor, De Santos and the defendants are known to each other. The prosecutor said that the two men hired De Santos to take them up the Potaro River at a cost of $7,000 per man.
He said on the day of the wounding, around 1.30 am, they went to De Santos’ home and an argument ensued between them over the arrangements to travel up the Potaro River. The defendants became annoyed, picked up a piece of wood and dealt De Santos several lashes to his head and they cuffed him about his body.
The prosecutor added that De Santos, with assistance of a neighbour, made a report to the Mahdia Police Station and afterward he was taken to the regional hospital, from where he was later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital. The police prosecutor also told the court that De Santos is still hospitalised.
However, according to Peters, he only slapped De Santos. He explained that they had argued because they had made arrangements for him to take them up the river and bring them back. Peters said that De Santos, after he was paid in full for the trip, took them up the river but left him and Paul there.
The magistrate, after taking into consideration their ages, De Santos’ condition and that it was their first offence, sentenced the men to 24 months in jail.
