By Heppilena Ferguson
A post-mortem examination has revealed that the prisoner who was allegedly beaten at the Camp Street jail last week died as a result of a blood clot in the lungs due to burns about the back and a fractured left arm.
On Friday, around 11 pm, prisoner Edwin Niles succumbed to his injuries. The autopsy results are likely to stoke calls for a probe into allegations that Niles was severely beaten by prison officers after he was found with ammunition.
In a statement yesterday, police said that the man also suffered a fractured left arm. Even as investigations into the beating have been launched Niles’s reputed wife Sharon Nedd is doubtful that anything would come of it “…because this is Guyana and this country don’t have no justice,” the distraught woman said.
Meanwhile, Niles’s mother Barbara Niles told Stabroek News yesterday that she witnessed the post-mortem examination and saw numerous obvious scalding marks on her son’s body. “He was cooked, especially from his neck going down to his back. The neck skin was cooked,” she emphasized.
Hospital sources had said that although the man appeared to be recovering his body bore serious lacerations and several “black and blue” marks which signalled that he may have sustained massive internal injuries. He also had a broken arm as well as burns on his back. The source said the man was able to walk to and from his bed and the washroom, but his injuries may have caused much internal bleeding.
Niles’s mother said the police have now handed over the body and relatives have since arranged for it to be kept at the Sandy’s Funeral Home. Funeral arrangements will me made shortly.
Nedd, who is the mother of Niles’ only child, a five year old girl said when he was admitted to hospital she had not been allowed to see him. As the woman tried to compose herself, she said repeatedly, “he already dead and nothing can bring him back.” She told this newspaper that she was shocked when her mother-in-law told her that the man had died. She also said relatives had not been told of the man’s passing until about 2 pm on Saturday.
The woman said she had spoken to her husband the day before the alleged beating occurred. She said as usual he would check on her to ensure that all was well. Nedd said the next thing she heard was that he had been admitted to hospital and on arrival there she had not been allowed to see him. “They basically treated us like pigs when we went there. We were not allowed to see him and when they really get back to his mother is to tell her that he dead,” she said. When this newspaper asked Nedd what she’d like to see done to clear up the matter, she said she didn’t expect the matter to be resolved and she didn’t expect justice to be served.
The woman did not want to comment about what may have led to Niles’s alleged beating at the hands of prison officers. She recounted that her husband changed jobs often but always ensured that everything was well for his family. Nedd said when she met Niles when he was a contractor and then he became a conductor. She said too that he worked at the maintenance shop at the Ministry of Public Works. Nedd recalled that when Niles was nabbed and later charged with possession of marijuana. “But it’s not like he was a criminal, he tried,” she insisted.
Asked about investigations at the level of the prisons in the wake of allegations that the man was beaten by prisons officers, Director of Prisons Dale Erskine said since the matter was engaging the attention of the police, “it would not be prudent” to comment.
Niles was a patient for nine days at the Georgetown hospital. According to a press release from the prison, during a routine search he had been found with seven .22 rounds of live ammunition following a day of labour at army base Camp Ayanganna. He reportedly returned to the prisons with a strange pair of pants which he had told prison officers was given to him at the army base and was reportedly beaten after the ammunition was discovered in the pants pocket.
A board of inquiry has since been established at the army base but it is not clear whether it had completed its investigations. However, a number of army ranks were questioned as part of the inquest. Erskine had told this newspaper on Saturday, following the issuing of a statement announcing the man’s death, that Niles had been injured during an altercation with prison officers.
Quizzed about the nature of reports on Niles while he was a patient at the hospital, Erskine had said the feedback he had received was that the man’s injuries were not life threatening. He said too the prison administration has since been in contact with the man’s relatives.
Niles was to be released from prison in September this year.
