Father of discharged Bartica double-murder accused beaten by cop

Feb 05, 2014 News

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In apparent anger over the discharging of a high profile murder matter by a Bartica Magistrate, a police rank inflicted a beating on a 64-year-old man whose son happens to be one of the freed accused.

Michael Newton, whose son Rawle Newton called ‘Satan’s Ambassador’ vanished after his matter was discharged last Thursday, sustained a broken tooth and other minor injuries at the hands of a police detective who demanded to know the whereabouts of the former murder accused.
The young Newton had bolted from the courtroom after the decision to discharge the matter was handed down by the magistrate and managed to avoid being rearrested.
The other accused, Keron Herbert, is presently back in custody having been rearrested almost immediately after walking out of the court.
Michael Newton, who resides at Sophia, had travelled to Bartica last Thursday, to observe proceedings in the matter in which his son and Herbert were before the court for the 2010 murders of gold miners Jainarine Raghubar and Ramdeo Deonarine.
“I would sometimes go to Bartica to listen to the case and I was there last Thursday and I was sitting in the court before the matter was called,” Newton, a mechanic told this newspaper yesterday.
He said that he left the courtroom for awhile and when he returned his son’s matter had been discharged and the young man was nowhere around.
Newton said that he subsequently left Bartica and travelled some three miles to Byderabo, where another of his sons resides.
According to him, while he was talking to his daughter-in-law around midday, a taxi with three police ranks pulled up outside the premises. He said that two of the ranks were in uniform, while one was in plainclothes. It was the plainclothes rank, he said, who came out of the car and using a series of expletives, ordered him into the vehicle.
Although the order surprised the elderly man, he complied nevertheless.
“I go in, because they had guns, and I know that I did not commit any crime,” he recalled.
He said that on the way back to the Bartica Police Station, the rank in plainclothes, whom he later learnt was a Detective, began physically assaulting him.
“He start slapping me in my face, and on my chest, saying, ‘whey de f*****g man deh? We gon shoot he s***t today!’ He end up breaking out my teeth,” Michael Newton related to this newspaper.
He immediately knew that the police were looking for his son, but he maintained that he did not and still does know his whereabouts.
At the Bartica Police Station, he was placed to sit on “the bench” by one of the ranks who threatened to put him in the lock-ups. A few minutes later he was taken before a senior officer who he described as very polite.
“The officer asked me if I know whey ‘Ambassador’ deh and I said ‘no sir’ and then they took me back to the bench,” Newton said. Five minutes later he was set free, but without any apology for the beating he sustained earlier.
He expressed fear for his life as well as for that of his son, even as he laments the trauma that his elderly wife is also going through.
“The Minister of Home Affairs and the Commissioner telling the public to assist the police, but you can’t assist them when the police behaving in this manner,” Newton said.
He is at a loss as to why such treatment was meted out to him, especially since he claimed to have a very good relationship with the police at the Bartica Station.
“I would take food for my son whenever he is there to attend court, and the police always treat me politely. I have no problem with them,” he said.
“If the police are angry that the magistrate discharged the matter they just can’t go around the place taking it out on people,” Newton added.
He has since lodged an official complaint and has given a detailed statement along with a medical report.
A senior police official confirmed that Newton did make a formal complaint.
“He went to Home Affairs, they sent him to OPR, and they sent him to the F Division Headquarters where he gave a statement. But at no time did he say he was assaulted. He said he was being harassed,” the police official told this newspaper.
The investigation into the matter is continuing.
Meanwhile, Keron Herbert was released from custody last Friday, after his attorney filed writ of habeas corpus. The police say they are awaiting the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether to reinstitute the murder charges.
Last Thursday Magistrate Delon Bess ruled that the prosecution had failed to present the court with sufficient evidence for a case of murder to be established against both Herbert and Rawle Newton.

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