The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has instructed the police to conduct further investigations into the fatal beating of Ardell Haynes over a week ago, and then return the file for additional advice, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said yesterday.
The police after completing their investigations prepared a file and sent same to the DPP earlier this week for advice on the way forward. They were also forced to release the three men in custody on station bail as the 72 hours permitted by the law to hold them for questioning was up.
Yesterday the man’s widow, Sheril Sydney said she was fed up with the situation and had no confidence in the justice system as there was enough evidence in her mind to charge those in custody.
“I fed up with this country man. I can’t see people giving you evidence and you ain’t doing nothing about it”, she said adding that her brother-in-law was in a mechanic shop in the East La Penitence area when a man who was later held came and said that he and others had just beaten a man. The woman stated that the man even went to the police with this information.
“Nothing will come out of this. I will not get any justice. Everyone will just walk free…”, she added.
According to Sydney she was told by the police on Tuesday that the suspects are not admitting to hitting Haynes and as such they will have no choice but to release them.
The woman told this newspaper that since her husband’s killing she has been receiving threatening phone calls late at night from unknown persons and though she informed the police about this she was told that nothing could be done.
Sydney said up to now the bicycle Haynes was riding when he was confronted and beaten, and other belongings have not been found.
Last Tuesday night as the 42-year-old electrician was making his way home on bicycle from a birthday party held at a Norton Street residence, several persons suspecting that he was a thief, beat him mercilessly.
They had assumed that he was a burglar who had broken into a house in Pirai Square, East La Penitence and attempted to cart off a television set, minutes earlier. That person dropped the item after an alarm was raised and escaped through a nearby alleyway.
Subsequently a group of persons took a badly wounded Haynes to the said home for identification saying that he was found staggering on a street in Meadow Brook.
The man was later taken to the East La Penitence Police Station and left in the yard between traffic motor cycles in the drizzling rain.
His wife said that when she called the station for information, the female rank at the other end of the line was uncaring and unmannerly. The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has since launched an investigation into the alleged negligence and misconduct of the ranks at the station.
Haynes was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Hospital and a post-mortem examination revealed that he died from multiple injuries.
Four persons were held but one was released the following day after investigators were convinced that he was not home at the time.
Two residents of Macaw Lane, East La Penitence had told this newspaper that they were eyewitnesses to the beating.
One said that he was on his veranda when he saw two young men who lived in the area beating a man on the road. The man was reluctant to divulge more information but pointed out that the two persons were in police custody and were providing investigators with information.
Another resident said that he heard the commotion but dismissed it as a group of young people returning from a football field located further up the road.
However when the group passed his home he heard someone saying “you is a thief” and when he looked out he saw around 10-12 persons as they were heading through an alleyway that led to Pirai Square.
He said it was too dark to see their faces but he observed that the persons were shirtless.
