Home Affairs Minister, Police Commissioner mum on no DNA testing of trousers in Henry murder

Last Updated on Sunday, 8 November 2020, 14:46 by Denis Chabrol

Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn on Sunday said there are other international agencies that could help probe the killing of the three teenagers on the West Coast Berbice in early September, but he and Police Commissioner Nigel Hoppie are mum on why the trousers found on one of the boys was not DNA tested.

“I cannot speak to that issue at the moment,” Mr. Benn told News-Talk Radio Guyana  103.1 FM/ Demerara Waves Online News, opting to repeat his position when asked whether he asked the Police Force for an explanation.

The Police Commissioner said a statement would be issued subsequently. “I’m not going to comment on that right now but you’ll be duly informed,” he said.

Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes, who is representing the Henry families, had said police have indicated that the trousers, which were not those that Joel had been wearing at the time he had left home, had not been DNA tested.

The Home Affairs Minister sought to assure that that there was no need to rush the probe into  the killing of Isaiah and Joel Henry whose bodies were found on a coconut estate aback Cotton Tree Village, West Coast Berbice on Sunday, September 6, 2020 a day after they had left their Number Three Village residence to pick coconuts to sell.

“Given the circumstances, the investigations are running their  natural course and we anticipate a result,”

The Home Affairs Minister declined to discuss whether the Guyana government would assist in bringing forensic experts from Argentina and Spain to conduct a high-tech sample gathering and testing exercise where the bodies of  Joel and Isaiah Henry were found.

“I can’t speak to that. We have relationships with the Regional Security System, we have relationships with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, with the UK security services and the American security services as well as the Canadians. I don’t think there is a request yet for any other recourse,” Mr. Benn said.

Amid violent unrest, two days later on September 9, 2020, 17-year old Haresh Singh of Number 3 Village, West Coast Berbice  was killed and his motorcycle burnt while he had been on his way to his farm.