Ex-Deputy Commissioner of Police on bail for fraud, sexual assault

Oct 16, 2021 News

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Kaieteur News – Suspended Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) and Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe, yesterday made his first court appearance and was slapped with three counts of sexual assault and a fraud charge.

Slowe was charged in absentia back in May for conspiracy to defraud but recently returned to Guyana to face the charge. Yesterday when he appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, ranks from the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) attempted to arrest him. However, their attempt was foiled by Slowe’s lawyers, who insisted on the matter being handled in the courtroom.
In the company of his lawyers, Selwyn Pieters and Patrice Henry, Slowe appeared before Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus.
He was not required to enter a plea to the three sexual assault charges that were read to him. The three charges allege that he sexually assaulted a female member of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) on three occasions back in 2019.
The first charge alleges that between March 26 and April 2, 2019, Slowe allegedly touched the victim in a sexual way by rubbing her left leg and foot without consent.
The second charge stated that on March 29, 2019, at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, Slowe allegedly touched the victim in a sexual way by rubbing her left leg and foot without consent.
The third charge alleges that on April 2, 2019, at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, Slowe allegedly touched the victim in a sexual way by rubbing her left leg and foot without consent.
Principal Magistrate Issacs-Marcus granted Slowe bail in the total sum of $225,000 for the sexual assault charges and the matter was adjourned to November 26, 2021.
The Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police was also charged for conspiracy to defraud. That charge was also read to him yesterday.
On May 20, 2021, Slowe, along with several other retired high-ranking officers of the GPF and members of the Force were slapped with a joint conspiracy to defraud charge. While others had appeared in court, Slowe was charged in absentia.
Those charged are retired officers: Assistant Commissioner, Clinton Conway; Assistant Commissioner, Claude Whittaker; Senior Superintendent George Fraser; Senior Superintendent Michael Sutton and Superintendent Mark Gilbert. Other serving members of the GPF charged are: former Police Finance Officer, Senior Superintendent Marcelene Washington; serving Assistant Commissioner, Royston Andries-Junor; and Police Finance Officer, Assistant Superintendent Marlon Kellman.
Slowe was not required to plea to the charge which alleges that between March 1, 2019, and July 7, 2020, at the Guyana Police Force Headquarters, Eve Leary, he conspired with Conway, Whittaker, Fraser, Gilbert, Andries-Junor, Washington, Sutton and Kellman, and with other persons, to defraud the Force of $10,056,000.
The charge further alleges that Slowe, Conway, Whittaker, Fraser and Gilbert were paid the sum of $10,056,000, without following the correct procedures, in allegedly reviewing the Force’s Standing Orders, which had already been reviewed.
He was placed on $100,000 bail for that offence and the matter was adjourned.
Kaieteur News had reported that a SOCU investigation had revealed that retired Commissioner of Police, Leslie James, solely hired Slowe, Conway, Whittaker, Gilbert and Fraser, to conduct a complete revision of the Force’s Standing Orders during March 2019. It was noted that the former Commissioner, had failed to prepare a budget for the revision and also did not make any contractual agreements specifying what needed to be revised and the terms of payment for the job.
It was reported that he never sent for nor received approval from the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Security nor the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board. The payments amounted to over ten million dollars. As such, it should have been budgeted and sent to Tender Board for approval.
The Force’s Standing Orders comprise of 104 orders and it was discovered that the former officers were reportedly paid for the job but had not completed the revision. Moreover, according to reports, the Orders that they were hired to revise had already been revised in its entirety during the period July 2018 and March 2019, by highly qualified and competent policy analysts of the Strategic Planning Unit (SPU).
The charges were brought against them by SOCU and a total of 11 officers were charged.
Others members of the Force before the court facing similar fraud charges are: Deputy Commander of Division 4 ‘B’, Senior Superintendent Lorraine Saul; former Deputy Finance Officer, Deputy Superintendent Frank Jackman-Wilburg; and former Deputy Finance Officer, Assistant Superintendent Roxanne Griffith-Adams. Other ranks that were charged are: Officer-in-Charge at the Police Finance Department (ag), Assistant Superintendent Kurt Smith; former Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kevin Adonis; Sergeants Jermaine Fraser and Michael Corbin; Corporal Rawle Haynes and constables Jenneka Carmichael and Tatyana Smith.

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