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alexk
Guest
One of the reasons why it took the police five days to charge three robbery suspects is because they threw faeces at the police from the police cell.
This was told to San Fernando Magistrate Alicia Chankar when brothers Josiah, 25, and Rutendo Duttin, 33, and David Lewis, 33, appeared in court charged with a total of six robberies.
They were all denied bail. Josiah faced a separate charge of rape. They were not called upon to plead to any of the indictable charges.
The first charge alleged on May 18 at Borde Narve, near Princes Town, they robbed a man of keys, two cellphones worth $3,000, $560 cash and also beat him.
They are also accused of beating and robbing a woman of her jewelry valued $26,000, keys worth $300, a $2,000 cellphone and $300 cash.
Josiah is also charged with raping the woman. The accused are also charged with robbing Verna Seerattan, 78, and her husband Walter, 79, on May 23 at Duncan Village, San Fernando.
It is alleged that they stole a pair of eye glasses valued at $3,000, a $200 bag, a $500 cellphone, two sets of keys and $250 cash.
Duttin alone was charged that between May 2 and May 5, he broke into a woman’s house at St Croix Road, Princes Town and stole $182,020 worth of jewelry, alcohol, keys, boots, laptops and other items.
He faced another charged of stealing a $70,000 X-Trail from the same compound. Their attorney Bernadette Arneaud complained that a habeas corpus was filed in the High Court around 11.55 pm on Monday to get the police to bring the accused to court.
The court heard from the prosecution that the suspects contributed to the delay. The prosecution said Josiah threw faeces at the police from the station cell when the police attempted to take them to the identification parade room.
The magistrate was told that Josiah refused to give his fingerprints, but Josiah claimed he gave his prints on Sunday.
Arneaud said the judge found that was an insufficient reason not to charge them. She said the accused were supposed to appear in court at 10 am, but the police only charged them at 8.30 am. In her bail application, Arneaud said Josiah and Duttin lived in Moruga. She said Josiah, a fabricator, had matters in the Princes Town court but they were all dismissed, except for one for which he was convicted.
However, he failed to pay the fine since 2014 and a warrant was issued for his arrest. She said Duttin, a father of two, who runs a private taxi service and works construction, had no pending matters as all the previous charges against him have been dismissed.
She said Lewis, a farmer and father of one from Sangre Grande, has no previous convictions or pending matters.
The prosecutor said he had no tracing for the men. The magistrate remanded them into custody and adjourned the Princes Town offences to the Princes Town Magistrates Court for today. The other matters, which will remain in the Second Court, will be next heard on June 26.