Prisoner mysteriously vanishes from La

Grange lock-ups

Police on the West Coast of Demerara got the shock of their lives yesterday morning when they turned up at La Grange Police Station to collect an armed robbery and burglary suspect for court, only to find that the cell he was being held in was empty.
Two Constables who were tasked with guarding him are in hot water over the mysterious disappearance.
This newspaper was reliably informed by a senior police official on the West Side that the man, whose name was given as Travis Joseph, called Travis Rose, was held in the lock-ups over the weekend, having been arrested last Friday.
He is suspected of being involved in armed robberies committed all the way in Berbice and had sought refuge in the Westminster area, to avoid incarceration.
However, his criminal instincts did not desert him for long and he soon returned to his thieving ways.
According to the source, the man was recently fingered in the burglary of a policeman’s house.
Before long he was captured and placed in the lock-ups pending a court hearing which was to be held yesterday.
But when the investigating ranks turned up for him, he had vanished and the two Constables on duty who were supposed to be guarding him could not give a proper explanation for his disappearance.
Kaieteur News learnt that the senior of the two ranks told investigators that he was out on a report leaving his colleague in charge of the prisoner.
However, when he returned he did not check to see if the prisoner was still in the cell.
The ranks also did not immediately tell their superiors that the prisoner had escaped, even when they discovered it was so, early yesterday morning.
There were signs of a breach of the lock-up door, but senior police officials still believe that the prisoner was aided by those who were supposed to guard him.
“I believe there was some collusion, although there are signs of breaches to the door. But the police should have heard if anyone tried to breach the door; that’s what they are there for,” a senior police official on the West Coast of Demerara told Kaieteur News