Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
“Imprisoned” man rescued from backyard pen
The pen in which Gopaul was force to live.
Authorities from the Guyana Police Force were yesterday called in to rescue a young man who was locked in a pen and forced to live like an animal for over three years.
Gopaul Etwaroo, the 22-year-old young man of Block ‘Y’ North Sophia, was rescued around 14:00 hours. He lived with his father and stepmother. He appeared to be of unsound mind; he was not fluent of speech when he was removed from the pen in the family’s backyard.
According to his stepmother, who gave her name as Parbattie, Gopaul’s father, Mohan Etwaroo, placed him in the pen because she said the young would destroy household items. He would usually run away from home.
The small wooden pen had minimum protection from sun and rain. A drain containing stagnant water was approximately one metre from the pen in which Etwaroo was forced to live.
Gopaul in the back of a Police vehicle after being rescued.
The pen was locked from the outside allowing only his stepmother and father access. In the pen, there were plastic litre bottles cut in half. These served as eating utensils.
There were no clothing, sheets or mattress in the pen, but there was a designated area for him to relieve himself. An offensive odour was also emanating from the pen.
The young man’s stepmother said that she gave him clothing and other items but he destroyed them.
She said that the young man was “normal” but changed after he was locked in the pen for such a long time.
The woman said she told the young man’s father to send him to a home because of the way in which he behaved; she said she told him that the young man needs treatment but he refused to listen.
The woman said that she would give Gopaul meals in the morning but he would usually dispose of it in the nearby drain.
Parbattie said that Gopaul’s mother lives in Turkeyen and would seldom visit the home.
“He (father) put he in there because he does want he run away. When you put he outside, he destroying things,” Parbattee said. She said he destroyed the “music set” and the microwave.
The containers Gopaul used as eating utensils.
Parbattee claimed that officials from a government Ministry visited the home and told the family that it was okay for Gopaul to stay in the pen. “…it was bare mud and they tell him and he build it to concrete because they say the mud is not safe,” Parbattie said.
The young man was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation for treatment and evaluation, yesterday.
On Thursday, the Guyana Women Miners Organisation was contacted by an anonymous person who informed them that the young man’s father was housing him in a pen for the past ten years.
Gopaul’s stepmother and police officers at the home in which his father and step mother live.
President of the Guyana Women Miners Organisation, Urica Primus, said that they contacted the Dharm Shala, a home for adults. The home has expressed a willingness to accept Gopaul in the home.
Primus said that in the mean time, “We will continue to advocate for his rights to be respected and also for him to benefit from much better treatment than what he had in his parent’s care,” Primus said.
A neighbour, who lived close to the family for over 10 years, said that he was unaware that the young man lived in the pen.
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