Govt rules out voluntary compensation to baton-sodomized man

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:00 by GxMedia

Colwyn Harding (Kaieteur News photo)

Government on Thursday effectively ruled out voluntarily compensating the man who a policeman sodomized with a condom-covered baton and instead preferred for the matter to be tested in court.

Speaking with reporters after a post-cabinet press briefing, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon suggested that government was unlikely to offer 23-year old Colwyn Harding any money in light of moves to the court.

“I don’t believe that you got a choice if you say that you are going to court,” he said when asked if government was prepared to await the outcome of a court case.

In a case involving a youth whose testicles and penis were soaked with methylated spirits and set ablaze during a murder probe, the High Court had awarded him millions of dollars in damages.

Harding’s lawyer, Nigel Hughes, has given Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell until Thursday to pay GUY$100 million to his client for assault and injury amounted to a violation of his constitutional right to protection from inhuman treatment.

Told that Harding has since developed septicaemia, Luncheon- a well-respected medical doctor- opined that “God obviously is on his side” because the incident occurred two months ago.

Harding claimed that a named policeman inserted a wooden baton in his anus on November 15, 2013 when he was arrested at Timehri North in connection with a number of stolen items.  He was charged on November 18 for assaulting a peace officer and disorderly behaviour. After he was placed on GUY$50,000 bail he was remanded to prison.

The policeman has been placed under close arrest and others have been transferred from the Timehri Police Station to other stations.

The Police Commissioner has since directed the Office of Professional Responsibility to take over an incomplete probe that had been spearheaded by the Commander of ‘A’ Division, George Vyphuis.