Colwyn Henry and Gail Johnson at the Sparendaam Police Station on Tuesday night (Photos sourced from Nigel Hughes’ Facebook page)
December 20 ,2020
Two relatives of the murdered teen cousins Joel and Isaiah Henry were on Friday faced with five charges in wake of an altercation with Guyana Police Force ranks at the Sparendaam Police Station.
Gail Johnson and her son, Colwyn Henry, who are the mother and brother of Joel Henry, were jointly charged with two counts of assaulting a peace officer, and one count of disorderly behaviour. Johnson was also separately charged with resisting a police officer and obstructing a peace officer, while Henry was separately charged with failing to produce a driver’s licence, and resisting a peace officer. Johnson and Henry, of Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice, were each granted their release on a total of $30,000 bail for three of their charges and self-bail for the remainder.
The police said all matters have been set for continuation on January 28th, 2021.
A confrontation occurred at the station last Tuesday night after the vehicle in which Johnson and Henry were travelling was stopped at a police roadblock in front of the station. Henry, who had been driving, was unable to produce his licence, which led to an argument and ranks sought to arrest him.
The Guyana Police Force has said Henry hurled profanities at ranks and pushed away two of them during subsequent attempts to arrest him. It has also alleged that he dealt several cuffs to a constable and also bit him during a later scuffle in the station. Johnson, the police also said, also abused the police with profanities and held on to a rank and ripped his clothing.
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), at whose invitation the Henry family had travelled to Georgetown last Tuesday, subsequently called the police force’s account of what occurred “self-serving” and accused it of “unprovoked brutality” on Johnson and her son.
The GHRA has said it witnessed a chaotic scene with “Colwyn chained to the floor, the family lawyer, Nigel Hughes, protesting the treatment of his client, many police officers milling around to no evident purpose, Colwyn’s mother phasing in and out of consciousness as a result of elevated blood pressure resulting from being manhandled by the police.”
A video released by journalist Leroy Smith showed an altercation between Johnson and several police officers within the compound of the Sparendaam Police Station. Johnson can be seen screaming at the officers to stop “assaulting my son”.
“Loose my son. Colwyn, Colwyn, Colwyn,” she screamed while clinging to him.
It took at least four officers to separate the two at which point Johnson started screaming.
Henry can be heard calling for his mother as the camera briefly panned to police officers dealing him several cuffs about his body.
The family of the Henrys had travelled to Georgetown to attend a lecture by Argentine expert, Dr. Luis Fondebrider, who was invited to Guyana to determine whether his organization, the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropologists (EAAF), could aid the police’s efforts to solve the murders.
