A forty-one-year-old man who allegedly manually strangled a nine-year-old girl and left her on a beach at Parika appeared yesterday at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan refused bail for Tony Marks called ‘Nutman’, 41, who appeared in court clad in a dark green armless top, blue three-quarter pants and slippers.

The Blue Berry Hill, Linden resident was not required to plead to the capital offence of murder.

It is alleged that on January 15 at Parika, East Bank Essequibo he murdered Basmattie Seecharran, called Indy. According to reports the girl was last seen by her mother on January 15 and was discovered the next day among a pile of logs on the beach. She was lying face down and one side of her face was swollen while blood oozed out of her nose and ear. She was clothed only in pants. A post-mortem examination conducted on her body revealed that she died from manual strangulation compounded with blunt trauma to the head. She was also sexually assaulted.

When Marks was taken into the courtroom yesterday, he tried talking to the girl’s mother saying “I’m innocent”.

But shaking her head wildly she uttered through clenched teeth “I don’t want to hear nothing.” Police officers in court told Marks not to speak.

They also advised the child’s mother to calm down and not to say anything.

When the magistrate called the matter and Marks was told that he was not required to plead, he exclaimed: “This is a frame charge. I’m not a murderer and I don’t intend to murder anyone in this lifetime. I’m innocent. By God’s grace everything will be okay.”

As he was being led from the courtroom he continued: “It’s not a part of life I want to live. I’m not a murderer and I already tell the police I will cooperate. I already tell the officer to keep looking for the perpetrator. I’ll do anything to help the law and I’m willing to cooperate.”

Marks’s case was transferred to the Leonora Magistrate’s Court for February 22.