Man alleges police brutality, sodomy
- Mother seeks justice
A mother of four is seeking justice for the abuse of her son as police promise to investigate allegations of brutality and sodomy.
Her son, 23-year-old Colwyn Harding has been a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for the past two weeks. He is presently defecating through multiple bags from the side of his abdomen as a result of his ruptured intestine, which was sustained after a policeman allegedly pushed a baton up his anus.
Colwyn Harding
According to his mother, Sharon Harding, it all began November last with police stationed at the Timehri Police Station visiting her son who was spending time with his girlfriend in Timehri.
“One specific policeman, my son told me, was very violent. They were reluctant to listen to anything that my son told them when they questioned him about someone they were searching for. That person was subsequently found and arrested and they still brutalized my son and lock him up.”
In a recorded interview at his bedside at GPHC, Colwyn Harding claimed he was brutalized in front of his girlfriend who was placed outside the house when she began to object.
“They keep beating me, beating me and asking me to answer questions that I don’t know anything about. Then in front of an inspector and Corporal, he started to tell me he got to bugger me tonight! When I start behave bad and tell he that he can’t do that, he beat me and I get blackout, and they throw water on me and wake me up.”
The injured man then recounted “When I wake up the police still telling me he got to bugger me and he start throwing water on my skin and telling me when he like people dem got to be clean. Then he tell me go on the bed, and when I go he tell me bend over and wine and how I got to suck he and he got to bugger me!”
He further related that policeman then pulled out a condom from his rear pocket and placed it on his baton and began jabbing him on his rear.
“He then tell me lie down and he began pushing the baton up in my rear and I began to scream and then he start to beat me, then he take me outside and then down to the station.”
Adding that he then requested from another policeman to borrow his cell phone to contact his mother, he said that his mother was alarmed after learning of the incident. He was eventually placed in the lock ups.
“The same policeman beat me up more and buss up my head and he place me in a nasty lock up where he threatened to deal with me. After I spend 72 hours in the lock ups another police said I have to get loose… the same police officer say I can’t get loose because I will go to the media and I will tell them what happen, so he have to charge me with something in order to keep me quiet.”
The man’s mother explained that her son eventually had surgery after it was discovered that his intestine was damaged, which she insists was a result of the police brutality and misuse of the baton. She also noted Wednesday that the GPHC would be discharging him yesterday (Thursday) since the institution does not have any waste bags to facilitate his continued hospitalization.
Sharon Harding said after she visited the Police Complaints Authority and “nothing was being done”, she decided to visit Commander of the Police ‘A’ Division, George Vyphuis and a promise was made to intensify the investigations. This promise, the woman claimed, was also related to the Commissioner of Police Leroy Brumell.