Colwyn Harding alleged baton assault…Witness claims he was offered $$$ to change his story

As the nation holds its breath, anxiously awaiting the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on the Colwyn Harding sexual assault matter, Kaieteur News has been reliably informed that one of the witnesses was offered money to change his testimony in favour of the police who is being accused of sodomising Harding with a condom-covered baton.

Colwyn Harding

The man, Stephan Joseph Phillips called ‘Muslim’, who claimed to be in the lock-ups at the time Harding was in custody, was recorded saying that he had lied when he gave his first statement to the police.
Phillips had initially given a statement in which he claimed that he heard Colwyn Harding repeatedly screaming “murder” after police forced him into a cell at the Timehri Police Station, and he later found the alleged sexual assault victim bleeding and unconscious in the same cell.
This news was provided with a recording with a voice purported to be Phillips telling an undercover policewoman that he had lied in his first statement. But when confronted with this piece of information, Phillips at first denied that he had had any such conversation with the policewoman.
When pressed further with the tape recording, he finally admitted that he did speak to the policewoman, and went along with the suggested plan to change his story in favour of the police.
“She say, ‘if you work for we, we gon pay you…fuh say dat nothing ain’t happen…she say right now if you want, you could get a hundred thousand dollars. She ain’t show me no money, but she tek out a thousand dollars fuh pay passage fuh go to Brickdam station, but I tek de thousand dollars and go to de hospital to see Colwyn Harding,” Phillips related to this newspaper.
He said that that was the last time he spoke to her.
“I won’t accept no money. The statement that I gave them first is the one that I will stick with,” he said adding that at the time of the recording, he was fearful of the police. He stated that he has since been the subject of constant police harassment.
Kaieteur News understands that investigators from the Police’s Office of Professional Responsibility are aware of this development, which could impact significantly on any further investigations.

Stephan Joseph Phillips called ‘Muslim’

Meanwhile, Harding’s mother Sharon Harding is maintaining that the police initially tried to cover up the matter.
The woman, who visited this newspaper’s office yesterday, informed that she is still hurting from statements made by senior police officials, who claimed that she did not indicate that her son was sexually assaulted when she first reported the matter to them in December.
The woman’s son, who is back in Guyana after receiving medical attention in Jamaica, is alleging that on November 15 last year, he was sexually assaulted by a policeman who forcefully used a baton, covered with a condom, during attempts to arrest him.
Sharon Harding said that she had contacted the Commissioner of Police via text message informing him about her son’s allegations a month after the incident when his physical condition deteriorated.
Investigators had stated that her initial statement in December did not indicate sexual assault.
Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority Cecil Kennard had told the media that the reports prepared by the investigators showed no evidence of a sexual assault.
At a press conference on January 17 last, both Commissioner of Police Leroy Brumell and ‘A’ Division Commander George Vyphuis had said that when the matter was first reported to them, it was only reported as an ordinary assault and no mention was made of any sexual assault.
“At no time did the mother ever mention to me that a baton with a condom was used on her son…I only learnt about this from a recording,” Vyphuis had stressed.
However, yesterday Sharon Harding provided evidence of the text message which was sent to Brumell on December 16 last year.
It read: “Hi Mr Brumell, I am trying not 2 go 2 the media for ranks at Timehri Police Station for buggering my son. He now has 2 undergo surgery. I need ur intervention.”
The woman said that from the inception the police dragged their feet on the matter.
“If they had done things earlier my son would have been able to get medical attention earlier.” She said that after her initial text message to the commissioner, she met with Commander Vyphuis who assured her that an investigation was underway. She said that she even contacted the Officer-in-Charge of the Timehri Sub-Division, who gave her the same assurance.
But after a while her calls to these same officers went unanswered.
“They asked me not to go to the media. It was only after they were doing nothing that I decided to make the matter public,” Sharon Harding told this newspaper.
And it’s been a little over a week since the DPP has been perusing the file on the matter with a view to advising on whether to charge the police or not. This newspaper understands that emphasis is being placed on the report by a private medical practitioner.
A source close to the investigation has informed this newspaper that the report of Doctor Dalgleish Joseph was sent to the DPP as part of the police report, following their investigation into the matter.
Dr Joseph, this newspaper was informed, was contracted by the Colwyn Harding support group, after officials from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation had given their opinion on the injuries Harding was being treated there for.
The file has been with the DPP for a little over a week and according to a source, she is going through 45 statements meticulously so as to come with the right advice.
Harding is alleging that a policeman at the Timehri Police Station had inserted a condom-covered baton into his rectum, causing a severe rupture that almost cost him his life. The police have denied the allegation and medical opinion is divided on what might have caused his injury, for which he recently received treatment in Jamaica.