A convict, who is serving an eight years jail sentence, on Saturday afternoon escaped from the Mazaruni prison while he was carrying out labour duties at the penitentiary’s farm.
In a statement, Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels said the prisoner, Christopher Punch, 29, of Lot 28 El Dorado Village, West Coast Berbice, managed to escape the confines of the prison, despite heightened security. Punch, who is currently serving four sentences of two years each – which are running consecutively – was assigned to labour duties on the farm and was attending to the animals. The task is critical, Samuels said, even as he emphasised that there was heightened security.
Stabroek News understands that the prisoner asked to be released to urinate in some bushes nearby. It is believed that he used the opportunity to escape as prison officers could not account for him when they began to round up other inmates at 4:30 pm.
Punch was jailed for four counts of “larceny of motor cycle” and one count of attempted larceny, for which he was sentenced to one year imprisonment on the latter charge. The one year is running concurrently with one of the two year sentences.
An investigation has been launched and Samuels said an investigative team is en route to the location to further probe the escape.
