System failure blamed for youth’s gruesome death

Dec 30, 2012 News

---

 Police and Social Services agencies should have acted more decisively – relatives

The various systems that have been put in place to assist the underprivileged and abused youths like Devon Da Silva, also known as Devon Lewis, have failed miserably and are now being blamed for the youth’s gruesome death.
During the wee hours of last Thursday morning (December 27), residents of Sisters Village, East Bank Berbice, were jolted out of their slumber with the devastating news that the 18-year-old Da Silva had been brutally murdered – stabbed to death while in bed with his 18-year-old girlfriend, Ashley Whyte called ‘Toya’ at her parents’ home, Lot 112 Sisters Village, by a jealous male relative who was obsessed that the youth had rejected him.

The question being asked is why Da Silva had to die so senselessly.  It also begs the question if the various systems that were supposed to be in place to protect abused teens like the victim were indeed working. Especially so when numerous reports we made to all the relevant agencies and authorities of the abuse which included threats and attempts on Da Silva’s life that the teen was being made to endure by his obsessed and jealous step uncle, the murder suspect,  Roy Lewis.
The teen died before receiving medical attention while his killer reportedly ingested a bottle of poison and is still a patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the New Amsterdam Hospital.
The youth, who was allegedly forced into a longstanding intimate relationship with Lewis, was reportedly asleep beside his girlfriend, when the suspect reportedly entered the house and stabbed him several times about his body. Da Silva and Whyte were together for six years and lived in the same street, as well as attended the same primary and secondary schools.
The man was reportedly seen earlier during the day and night at a fun day which was held nearby, stalking the youths and showing them a knife which he was carrying, but they did not take him seriously. Ashley Whyte had stated that the suspect was calling Da Silva’s mobile phone all the time and the teen after awhile had turned off the instrument. Whyte stated that they decided to leave the fairground early and went to her home.
She subsequently returned to the fairground and bought some food, before returning home. She and her boyfriend then retired to bed. Her brother, who is a policeman stationed at the Fort Wellington Station, left the house during the early morning hours for work. The door was apparently not locked after that. The predator after secluding himself used the opportunity to enter the house and bolted the door from inside before going to the bedroom and inflicting the grievous injuries on Da Silva. It was not determined if Lewis ingested the poison before or after the act.
Whyte’s parents, Philbert and Janice, slept downstairs in the two-storey house. Philbert Whyte had related that he awoke to a commotion and the screams of his daughter. He rushed upstairs, but the door was bolted. He and his wife started to bang the door until Ashley managed to open it.  He was confronted by the suspect armed with a long, bloodied knife. They got into a tangle and he was able to wrestle the knife away from the alleged assailant before tossing him over the landing when he fell and broke the fence below.
Da Silva’s stepfather Carlos Lewis and his mother Roxanne struck up a relationship when he was a toddler. His step father took him over and even changed his surname to Lewis. At the time, the accused who was a seaman was living at the same home. The youth was about 14 years old when the accused first forced him into an intimate relationship, by forcing him to have anal sex with him. This was after he was seduced, forced, threatened and showered with lavish gifts. After the situation became overbearing and out of control the two ‘lovers’ were evicted. The accused moved out and gleefully accepted Da Silva as his companion.
The teen, although being forced and threatened, eventually decided that he did not want to continue with the relationship and started to spurn Lewis’s advances. He stopped accepting gifts from the man and eventually sought employment at the Providence Cement Packaging plant (formerly Bermine). Subsequently, the accused stopped working on sea and also sought employment at the same entity, so as to be close to Da Silva. He started puncturing Da Silva’s bicycle wheel and reportedly attempted to feed him food laced with poison on a few occasions and throw suspicious liquids in his drink.
The tormented teen, in his continued effort to shake off the obsessed former partner, sought employment in the interior and was away for over two and a half months. He had travelled home only on Saturday last to be with relatives and his girlfriend for the Christmas season.
Ashley Whyte’s parents had reportedly informed the police and Child Welfare Department about the situation of an adult living with a teenager. But nothing was done. The Welfare Department, they said, had failed to act. Da Silva eventually walked out on the man and returned home. The suspect however would have none of it.
Mrs. Whyte stated that “Devon wanted to move on with my daughter, so I thought it was best to report the matter to the Welfare Department because of the constant torment from Roy (suspect).” She stated that she also reported the matter to the police, and although a restraining order was out against the man that didn’t help.
He still tormented the young man.  After his relentless pursuit the matter ended up in court in May last, with the suspect being charged with using threatening language. This was after he had attacked Da Silva and placed a knife to his throat, threatening to kill him. The man had threatened the youth’s life for spurning him and telling people that he had anal sex with him. This happened in the presence of a number of persons.
According to information, the suspect during that encounter, whilst placing the knife to Da Silva’s throat had reportedly stated that “Remember what I tell you. I will kill you if you leave me and tell anybody about us.” Da Silva, who is the second of five children, was injured during that melee.
According to relatives, the system failed him miserably. “This was not an overnight story. This was a story of an abused youth who was taken advantage of since he was in his early teens. He was defenseless, helpless, threatened and seduced. He was left alone at the mercies of his predator and although he tried desperately to help himself, with the matter being reported to all the relevant agencies – the police, welfare and probation, nothing much was done.”
One relative opined that “They should have protected the youth “not only girls are being abused, males too, and it comes in different forms.”
They are calling for stiffer laws to be put in place.  Another relative wondered what will happen if the suspect survives and decides to plead guilty to manslaughter…if that would be accepted instead of murder.

---

---