The Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday denied allegations that it failed to properly investigate an alibi provided for Glaston Henry (aka Gladwin Henry), one of four persons charged this week with the murder of Haresh Singh in September last year.
In a statement released last evening the GPF rejected the alibi provided by attorney Nigel Hughes and declared that the nine “alibi witnesses” who have provided statements are likely to be charged with “attempting to pervert the course of justice”.
During a press conference yesterday Henry’s attorney claimed that he had provided both the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions with evidence that the accused was at his mother’s home several villages away when Singh was murdered on September 9th last year. Hughes said that the morning of Singh’s murder was also the day on which the post-mortem examinations for Isaiah and Joel Henry were conducted. The Henry family, he maintained, had gathered to view the procedures which were broadcast live by Glaston Henry (snr) from Georgetown.
“They had gathered there from about 8 in the morning…in that family gathering and he had been there since the night before and was there for the entire morning of September 9 was Glaston Henry also known as Gladwin Henry,” Hughes pronounced adding that during the course of the morning two police officers visited the home of Patricia Henry and should be able to confirm that the accused was there.
In a response several hours later, the Police maintained that though he had been interviewed on two separate occasions on June 26 and June 27, Glaston Henry never pro-vided an alibi in relation to the murder of Singh.
“He exercised his right to remain silent on each occasion. At no time whatsoever did the suspect inform the investigators that he had an alibi or that he was elsewhere during the time of the murder…it was his attorney who belatedly on the last occasion told an investigator after the said video interview was completed that Glaston Henry was elsewhere and there were witnesses. The attorney did not submit a statement for Glaston Henry or put any alibi on record either in an oral or written statement during the video interviews that were conducted,” the GPF statement said.
Further, the police con-tend that no alibi witness ever presented themselves to the investigators for their statement to be taken and that significant aspects of the alibi provided could not be verified.
The police said that following the delivery of preprepared statements to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Head-quarters on June 28 investigators immediately commenced probing the alibi statements by making earnest efforts to contact these witnesses.
Senior officers were deployed to locate and interview the named witnesses, two of whom could not be located at their homes. No informa-tion was provided about the seven witnesses who presumably could be located.
Additionally an examination of the police video recording of the post mortem on September 9th, 2020 showed that the senior Glaston Henry briefly entered and exited the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home where the post-mortem examination was being conducted for the sole purpose of identifying the body of his son Isaiah Henry.
“Glaston Henry [snr] was never holding a phone in his hand at the time, he only had a mask and a rag in his hands. Further, when he exited the room, he could be seen standing outside and putting on his mask while holding a rag in the other hand…[he] never re-entered the room therefore, it is impossible for him to have attended the post-mortem examination and video recorded it live as it was being conducted,” the GPF stated..
The police force went on to contend that all nine purported alibi witnesses are currently being sought by the GPF in connection with alleged attempts to pervert the course of justice since if the father of Glaston Henry never recorded any post-mortem examination live, then clearly they could not have been home watching a live video together with Glaston Henry.
The final contention of the GPF was that the officer identified by the witnesses as visiting the Henrys’ home, Inspector Sarabo was himself present at the post mortem being conducted in Georgetown.
“[The inspector] can be seen present during the post-mortem examination, in the recording made by the investigators and also in the background of a ‘Prime News’ video inter-view that was being conducted with Mr. Hughes immediately after the conclusion of the post-mortem examination,” it stressed before concluding that the GPF had dis-charged its mandate in completing the investigation and sending the file to the DPP for legal advice which eventuated in the charges against Glaston Henry (jnr) and three others.
