Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
Charges against strip club owner for assaulting cop, disorderly behaviour, dismissed
Nine months after he was charged for assaulting a cop and behaving in a disorderly manner, the charges against Freeman Fordyce, the owner of the Diamond Club located in Georgetown, was yesterday dismissed.
Freeman Fordyce
Fordyce was on trial for the two charges before Senior Magistrate Dylon Bess in the Georgetown Magistrate Courts.
It was alleged that on November 9, 2018 at George Street, Georgetown, he assaulted Police Inspector, Prem Narine. Also, it was further alleged that on the same day, and at the same location, Fordyce behaved in a disorderly manner.
Yesterday Magistrate Bess in dismissing the charges against the defendant stated that this comes as a result of insufficient evidence provided by the prosecutor and given that after five occasions the virtual complainant, Inspector Narine, failed to show up in court during the trial.
According to information, the charges stemmed from an investigation after Fordyce alleged that Narine threatened him with a firearm.
However, video footage posted online showed Fordyce resisting being searched and then punching Inspector Narine in the face. It was then that the rank drew his firearm.
In February 2019, Freeman was given a four-year suspended sentence for being in possession of an illegal gun after he was found guilty of the offence.
The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has since appealed the Magistrate’s decision. However, in the following month he was charged again for human trafficking.
The defendant, 41, of Lot 99 Collingswood Avenue, Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara, is accused of trafficking two Venezuelans for sexual exploitation at his club. This matter is still before the courts being presided over by Senior Magistrate Leron Daly.
In relation to this matter, police had carried out a raid at the Diamond Club which led to the arrest of 15 women, all said to be foreign nationals. This was after a video circulated on social media, which showed a woman jumping over a locked gate to get into the compound.
The woman was being assisted by four of her friends who were on the other side of the fence. They were holding up the security barbed wire so that the woman could have gained entry.
Hours after the video hit social media, police raided the compound and detained the 15 women, suspected to be victims of trafficking in persons (TIP).
The woman, Dailyn Garcia, 25, a Venezuelan, who was seen climbing the fence, was later charged for overstaying her time in Guyana. She was fined $30,000 for the offence or in default six months imprisonment.
Upon paying the fine or spending the time, Garcia will be escorted to the nearest port of exit and deported to her homeland. (Trishan Craig)
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