In seven months…Over 200 corruption complaints against cops

Aug 05, 2019 News

With a new Police Commissioner who has repeatedly expressed determination to have a professional organization, the Force’s hierarchy has dispatched an alarming number of corruption claims for investigation.
According to a senior police official, around 250 such complaints have reached the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
Chief among the reports are allegations against Deputy Police Commissioner of Law Enforcement Lyndon Alves. The results of that investigation are likely to be known shortly.
According to police officials the OPR has also handed the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) a damning report that implicates some ranks in the covering up of a series of gang rapes. One of the alleged rapists is said to be a policeman’s son.
Kaieteur News understands that the report was handed over to the DPP’s office last week.
The report is said to include statements from a handwriting expert, who concluded that a female lance corporal (since retired), forged the signatures of three of the victims.
The same rank is also accused of altering the young women’s statements to suggest that they had not identified their attackers. The victims had positively identified their attackers.
Two of the policewomen were attached to the Forces’ Sexual Offences Units.
Kaieteur News understands that some of the police ranks who were involved in aspects of the investigation claimed that their statements were switched.
The police expert reportedly verified that the handwriting in the altered statements matched samples of the female lance corporal’s handwriting.
A policeman who is related to one of the suspects is also accused of paying one of the victims $200,000 to settle the matter. The female lance corporal from the sex crime unit is said to have acted as the go-between in handing over the ‘hush money.’
It is also alleged that one of the implicated policemen made a false statement in which he gave one of the suspects an alibi.
However, that statement contradicted another that the same rank entered into the station diary.
Commissioner of Police, Leslie James, has said that the media will be informed of the findings of this and other investigations.
All of the implicated ranks have been transferred.
The victims, all in their teens, claim that the policeman’s son and two others, gang-raped and robbed them earlier this year, after they were duped into going on dates with one gang member who drives a car.
The teens said that although the matter was investigated and the suspects apprehended, only one of the alleged rapists was charged.
They have suggested that policewomen who help in sex crime investigations, and who took their statements, were involved in the cover-up.
Kaieteur News was told that persons close to the alleged rapists gave one victim’s family some $200,000 to avoid prosecution.
It is reported that the alleged serial rapists, including the policeman’s relatives, moved around on a motorcycle and a car.
They allegedly contacted their victims via social media.
The gang would reportedly then arrange to meet the unsuspecting young women. If a young woman responded, one of the gang members would take her for a ‘date’ in a car.
Unknown to the teen, two accomplices of their ‘date’ would be hiding in the car trunk.
The ‘date’ would take the teen to a secluded area, where his accomplices would emerge from the car trunk.
The men would then take turns raping the teen, before relieving her of her cell phone and other valuables.
All the attacks are said to have occurred at secluded areas on East Bank Demerara.
From reports reaching Kaieteur News, the gang slipped up when they contacted another teen, who is a friend of one of the victims.
The young woman allegedly notified the police, who allegedly instructed the intended victim to meet her ‘date’ at a particular location while the ranks lay in wait.
The ‘date’ and his accomplices were arrested when they all turned up at the location.
It is alleged that the investigation took a disturbing turn when the police ranks realised that one of the suspects was the son of a police rank.
While the victims allegedly identified all of the suspects, and also provided statements, only one of the men was charged. He remains on remand.

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