Locked up for five years…… a well learnt lesson…

Aug 29, 2010 News

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-”I’m forever stained by this” Nigel Forrester

By Latoya Giles
Have you wondered or imagined being incarcerated for a crime you never committed? Well let’s hope you never have to endure what Nigel Forrester, 26, went through. Forrester was recently acquitted of murder after spending five years behind bars, for a crime the police had no evidence linking him to. Forrester was accused of killing businessman Mahadeo Budhai, on November 24, 2005.
Two days after being released from prison, Forrester says he is struggling to put the pieces of his life back together.
When Kaieteur News visited his modest home, which is located at Providence, East Bank Demerara, the young man was surrounded by elated relatives.

As he sat calmly in a chair facing the reporter, Forrester recounted when his “nightmare” began.
It was three days after the murder and the police went to his then place of employment, Toolsie Persaud Limited.
“They arrested me and took me to the Providence Police Station for questioning,” said Forrester.
After arriving at the station, two policemen took him to an isolated room in the upper flat of the building.
He said that the officers started shouting at him, accusing him of killing the businessman.
“They started shouting, ‘is you kill de man…..tell we now so you ain’t gon gat fuh go through nothing’.”
Forrester said he continued being adamant and insisted to the lawmen that he had nothing to do with the man’s murder.
He admitted to the officers, that he would occasionally do “handy jobs” for Budhai, but knew nothing about his murder, or who might have committed it.
Forrester said the same detective, who admitted during his High Court trial that he had no evidence against him, was the person continuously pressuring him to confess.
“Was that same detective telling me I should confess because they know I kill de man,” said Forrester.
Forrester alleged that the officers placed about 10 black plastic bags over his head. “They put the bags over my head and started kicking me to the stomach.”
They later removed the plastic bags from his head and placed a written document in front of him.
Forrester said that the officers told him to sign the document and they would stop beating him.
“I tell them I can’t read….but I gun sign because I didn’t want them to kill me.”
The document later turned out to be a caution statement, which was later ruled inadmissible by Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire during the High Court trial.
After he signed the document, Forrester said Budhai’s wife, who was also a suspect, identified him as one of the last persons her husband was with.
The police later transferred him to the Brickdam Police Station where he spent almost one week, before being charged with the capital offence of murder.
Life changing …….
Forrester describes his five years in prison as life changing, challenging and frustrating.
“Prison is not a place I would want my enemy to go to….” he said.
He explained that he was surrounded by the “bad, the worst and the indifferent”. It was home for me and I had to abide by the rules and regulations.
While in prison, Forrester lost three close relatives, which he says was a massive blow to him.
“I lost my mother…who was like my backbone, and then I lost my eldest sister and brother.”
He said that he was very grateful to the Prison Service for allowing him to attend all of the funerals.
He said that the death of his brother caused him to become very frustrated and he almost gave up.
“After he died, I told myself I would never get to see my relatives alive…..because I’m stuck in prison”.
He said that being in prison placed a significant financial strain on his family.
According to Forrester, he was on “self support”, which meant that his family had to maintain him.
At this point Forrester’s father Lexia Howard interjected and gave his account of how the entire ordeal has changed him.
Howard said that it took $1000 a day to upkeep his son. He said it would get more expensive when the family visited Forrester at the prison.
“When you visit….you had to buy everything from drinks to toiletry,” explained Howard.
He said the legal fees for his son were paid by his pension and whatever little donation the family got.
“As soon as I get my pension it went straight to my son’s case…..we made his case a priority because we knew he was innocent of the charge.” The family paid almost a million dollars in legal fees.
Where to start?……
With his hands clasping his face, Forrester said he really can’t say what will be his next move.
“Five years of my life were taken from me….just because someone lied on me,” he cried. Starting from scratch, he says, will be very difficult but it is something that has to be done honestly. Forrester said he is forever “stained” by this and there is little or nothing anyone can do.
Surely, he says, the Justice System needs revamping because innocent people are behind bars.
He also said that the police need to stop their “shoddy” investigation and start arresting the real culprits.
Forrester said he is now exploring the option of filing a constitutional motion against the Guyana Police Force.
As the murder trial came to an end last week, Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire for the second time in less than two months blasted the Guyana Police Force for what she described as their shoddy investigation.
Justice George-Wiltshire in her address to the court said that the prosecution failed to establish a case against Forrester.
The judge told the court that it was disgraceful to hear that the investigating rank admitted in open court that he had no evidence against Forrester, yet he arrested him.
She noted that evidence, which was taken by the witnesses, had not directly linked Forrester to the crime.
“The evidence led by the witnesses was inconsistent……as such he (Forrester) has no case to answer,” said the judge.
Justice George-Wiltshire lamented that it was the second time that such a case had come before her.
“It is shocking, unfair and a total travesty to have persons in jail for such a lengthy time… and for something that they aren’t linked to.”
She said she finds it very hard to comprehend how people could be treated in this manner.
The star witness in the trial, Michael Jagdeo, had admitted during cross-examination that after the police had constantly accused him of being among the last persons at Budhai’s home before he was found dead in his backyard, he (the witness) told the police that Nigel Forrester was the last man on the scene. Jagdeo was also a suspect in the murder of Budhai.
Under cross-examination he denied that he was a witness of convenience who had come to give evidence to help Mrs. Budhai, who was a suspect.
Only last month, Justice William Ramlal had cited poor police investigation, high incidence of police incompetence and negligence as some of the main reasons certain murder trials are falling through.
The judge expressed those sentiments during the murder trial of Seon Yaw, who was accused of murdering 73-year-old security guard, Noel Jones, between December 5 and December 6, 2004.
Justice Ramlal had said that the prosecution failed to produce evidence which showed that Yaw inflicted the injuries which caused Jones’ death.
The judge further stated that although the prosecution tried its best, he had noticed a number of cases over the months which have been falling apart because of poor police investigation.
He was adamant that if the police are doing a criminal investigation they must do it properly.

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