December 5,2016
cops frustrated
Ten months ago, a 36-year-old Albouystown resident appeared before a magistrate for allegedly robbing a woman at gunpoint of a mobile phone.
The police prosecutor objected to bail on the grounds that the accused had a similar charge before the court. He was remanded to prison, but was subsequently released on bail.
Last July, the same accused was back in the news when the police posted a wanted bulletin for him in connection with an armed robbery.
Police say they have surveillance footage of the suspect participating in two armed robberies.
Back in October, 2009, apparently a hardened criminal at the age of 21, a Kaneville youth appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on multiple charges. One charge included murder.
It is alleged that in April of that month, the youth robbed another man at gunpoint of a cell phone and a ring.
In June, 2009, while armed with a gun, he allegedly robbed another man of a $160,000 gold chain.
The youth and another accused were charged jointly for the armed robbery committed on a woman, from whom they took cash, and other items, to the value of $147,400.
The duo was also charged jointly for the attempted murder of another individual who was shot in his left hip and upper abdomen.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum
Acting Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine
Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud
They were additionally charged with the gunning down of a Kaneville resident in 2015.
In 2011, a 20-year-old man and an accomplice allegedly stole from an office at Linden. After severely beating a security guard, the bandits escaped with $5M they had taken from a money canister.
The suspects were arrested, remanded, then released on $500,000 each.
Last week, the now 25-year-old man surfaced again. He was arrested in Robb Street and was reportedly positively identified as having participated in five recent robberies.
Thanks to a legal system that repeatedly grants bail to serial offenders, hardened criminals like these individuals are being allowed to repeatedly return to the streets to commit further atrocities, even while they are still before the courts.
Some senior police officials believe that this easy access to bail is emboldening some criminals. They also believe that it is fuelling the rise in brazen robberies, often committed by individuals who are out on bail.
“They are capitalizing on this weakness in the judicial system and they are capitalizing on the large backlog of cases (which results in delays in trials),” a senior official said.
This charade often only ends when the victims are incarcerated on murder charges or are slain by the police or by their own associates.
Such is the case with the ill-fated Hescott family.
On April 17 2007, Dave Hescott was found dead in the Le Repentir cemetery with a gunshot wound to the head in what appeared to be another execution-style killing.
In November 2006, another brother, Shawn Hescott was gunned down, a stone’s throw from his home, as he sat on a horse-cart chatting with his girlfriend and another woman.
In November 1996, Winston Hescott was shot and killed by police at Madewini on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
In August, 1997, Adam Hescott, was shot dead by police shortly after escaping with seven others from the Georgetown Prison.
It was just last October that Acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine had lamented that four men who were recently charged with unlawful possession of arms and ammunition were granted bail.
“Bail ought to be a serious deterrent to crime. You have in some cases the (accused) being granted $200,000 bail, $180,000 bail, $50,000 bail. What are we talking about here?”
Ramnarine reported that in one of the four cases, a man was charged with unlawful possession of arms and ammunition in May and granted bail.
“While on bail, he is arrested and charged with simple larceny of an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) valued at three point something million dollars. He is granted bail again.”
He said that the individual was granted bail for the May offence in August; then in September while on the simple larceny charge he was granted $50,000 bail.
“So he is out on bail for a serious crime, and he is granted $50,000 bail for another serious crime the following month.”
According to Ramnarine, the same individual is a prime suspect in the robbery/ murder of a Brazilian national in the interior where a firearm was used. He said that the man is now in custody.
The acting head of the Force had said that these instances are things to be alarmed about. “How can we be so insensitive in the granting of bail?” he said.
Moreover, he stated that it is clear that the criminal elements did not surrender their firearms during the gun amnesty.
“Here are our actions with total disregard to people being found with firearms well after a gun amnesty when they had an opportunity to surrender their firearms and we are very careless in the granting of bail in these cases.”
