Child electrocuted in Sophia, illegal connection blamed

Dec 31, 2013 News

An eight-year-old child was electrocuted around 11:30 hrs yesterday when he came into contact with an illegal connection that was located at the entrance of an empty lot next to his Plum Park, Sophia home.

Dead: Joshua Regis

The dead child has been identified as Joshua Regis, an Enterprise, East Coast Demerara, Primary School student.
According to reports, Joshua Regis left his home with a bucket to catch fish in the drain next to his home when he reportedly slipped on the muddy dam and grabbed onto the wire that was hanging down a Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL)’s utility pole, and was electrocuted.
His lifeless body was discovered by one of his sisters in the drain. He was still clutching the wire.
The wire Joshua grabbed was a Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T)’s phone line that was used to steal electricity.
Yesterday, the dead child’s mother, Nicola Wills, told this newspaper that she was in her home when one of her daughters told her that little Regis was going to catch fish. “I come out and I holler on he and he come in back and I went inside.”
“A little after his father come home from work and we had an argument concerning one of our daughters because she left home since yesterday (Sunday) to go to a wedding and she ain’t come home yet so I was telling him that he is negligent in the home,” a pregnant Wills stressed.
The mother of eight said that while she was arguing with her husband, she heard a strange sound and sent one of her daughters to see what it was.
“My daughter went and then she say that Joshua get shock up and when we run out I see him in the drain in a sitting position and he had a piece of wire in his hands.”
Joshua was picked up by his father, Sean Regis, and was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation where he was pronounced dead.
His parents denied having anything to do with the illegal connection.
“We don’t have anything to do with current. We are in the dark. No one owns that wire because it is at the side of an empty lot so I wouldn’t blame anyone,” Joshua’s father, Sean Regis stressed.

The illegal connection hanging from a GPL’s utility pole.

Police sources however told this newspaper that based on their investigations, the illegal connection is owned by the dead child’s family since no one else lives in that area and there are wires leading to their home.
Between January and June last, the power company detected and removed 3,921 illegal connections in communities along the East Bank, West Bank and the East Coast of Demerara, Berbice and Georgetown and its outskirts.
The company detected and removed a total of 2,410 illegal connections out of the 3,921 in Sophia and other parts of Georgetown.
Up to press time, the live wire was still dangling from the utility pole. No workers attached to the power company had visited the area.