Wanted teacher fingered in rape allegation believes he is being framed

Feb 20, 2014 News

With a wanted bulletin out for his arrest over rape allegations, a city high school teacher says he is convinced that someone is framing him and he desperately wants to clear his name.

Wanted: Ronald Forde

When Ronald Forde saw his photograph in the newspapers yesterday under a wanted caption in connection with a sexual assault matter, it was as if history was repeating itself; he had been previously charged with a similar offence for which he went through an aborted High Court trial.
The new development is causing him much stress since according to him, his character as a schoolteacher and the trust that should be placed in him are being severely eroded.
With rumours circulating that he is being fingered in the sexual molestation of a female student from the school he is now teaching at, Forde contacted this newspaper yesterday in an attempt to clear his name before turning himself in.
Forde came to prominence in 2011 while he was teaching at the Fort Wellington Secondary School.
In January of that year he was charged with having carnal knowledge of one of his students, aged 14, fully knowing that she was under the age of 18.
The charge, to which he was not required to plead, was read to the trained teacher at the Weldaad Magistrate’s court.
The matter had come to light when Forde’s lost cellular phone was recovered and perused.
On it were images of him having sex with the female student.
He faced a High Court trial and the matter was discharged in August 2012 by a judge who ordered that a new Preliminary Inquiry be conducted.
Meanwhile, Forde was reinstated as a teacher and was transferred to the St. John’s College in Georgetown where he is currently teaching.
But as he awaits the commencement of the Preliminary Inquiry into the Fort Wellington saga, the stain of that incident is obviously following Forde around, as he is now being fingered in another scandal of a similar nature.
On Tuesday the Guyana Police Force in a wanted bulletin said that Ronald Forde is wanted by the police for questioning in relation to a matter of rape which is under investigation.

Ronald Forde on his way to court back in 2011

They gave his date of birth as December 05, 1985, and his last known addresses as Lot 2 Bel Air, ECD and Factory Road, Paradise, East Coast Demerara.
Yesterday, Forde explained that he received a telephone call from a Ministry of Education official who informed him about a matter of a sexual nature involving a 15-year old female student, which is being investigated by the police.
He said that he immediately contacted senior officials from the Guyana Teachers’ Union who he said was unaware of any allegation that was leveled against him.
When contacted by this newspaper, a senior Education Ministry official said that he was not too familiar with the details of the allegations, since the matter is being dealt with by the Child Care and Protection Agency of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.
But Forde is terribly upset with the police putting out a wanted bulletin for his arrest, since according to him, he was not in hiding.
According to the teacher, prior to the bulletin being issued, he heard that the police were looking for him and he promptly went to the Brickdam Police Station on Saturday.
“They say they don’t want me. I call Eve Leary and they too said that they don’t know anything,” Forde told this newspaper.
He believes that the move to put out the bulletin was to embarrass him.
“I am convinced that somebody is using the police to publicly embarrass me. The police have my mug shot from my previous incarceration. Why didn’t they use that?” Forde said adding that the photograph that appeared in the wanted bulletin was taken from his facebook account.
According to the teacher, since the bulletin was issued he became scared since he is not sure what the motives behind it are.
He claims that within the past weeks he has been receiving several text messages from unknown numbers which suggest that someone is trying to frame him.
“I am considering what steps to take. I have no intention of running; you can’t run for your whole life,” he declared.
Police officials are maintaining that Forde should turn himself in for questioning into a matter that was brought to their attention by the Child Care and Protection Agency.
“If he is clean, then he should come in,” a senior police official told Kaieteur News.