2017 Lusignan prison escapee handed over to Guyanese police

Dec 24, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – After escaping from the Lusignan Prison, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on July 23, 2017 and being nabbed in Suriname in 2020, 35-year-old Paul Goriah was on Thursday handed over to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) by Surinamese authorities.

Goriah, who was committed to stand trial for murder which occurred during the course of a robbery committed on Anthony Breedy between March 12 and 14, 2016, was escorted to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters at Eve Leary after the handover.

Captured, Paul Goriah

During interrogation at CID, Goriah told police that when he escaped from the Lusignan Prison in 2017, he travelled to Lethem, Region Nine where he managed to enter Brazil. However, he was arrested by the Brazilian Authorities who subsequently released him from custody. Thereafter, he lived in Brazil for a year after which he travelled to Suriname and remained there.

In June 2020, Kaietuer News reported that while in Suriname, Goriah was captured after attempting to rob a family in Nickerie. Goriah and two other Guyanese were arrested. At the time of his arrest, Goriah reportedly told Surinamese authorities that his name was Kevin Smith.

According to reports, one of trio arrested entered the victim’s home and struck a woman on the head with a hammer. The intruders fled after the victim’s screams alerted her roommates.

Meanwhile, Goriah, formerly of Grove Squatting Area, East Bank Demerara, was remanded with three others in 2015 for the murder of remigrant agriculturist, Anthony Breedy, who was found dead in his Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara home.

Before his arrest for Breedy’s murder, Goriah served jail time for break and enter, larceny and trafficking narcotics charges.

Goriah and 12 other inmates had crawled to freedom from the Lusignan Prison holding area, after digging a five-foot long tunnel inside a makeshift latrine.