The prison officer accused of brutalising his wife two days before Christmas has been interdicted from duty, Director of Prisons Dale Erskine confirmed yesterday.
Erskine told Stabroek News, when contacted, that the man will remain interdicted from duty until the police advise them on action to be taken. He said that the file is with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and police investigations are continuing.
On Monday, Stephanie Sampson, a 22-year-old nurse attached to the Bartica Hospital, told Stabroek News that the authorities are not moving fast enough to charge the man and she wanted the process to be sped up because she felt unsafe. The violent attack on December 23 at the Mazaruni Prison left Sampson fearful for her life and barely able to use her hands. “When I ask anybody, they say he is military, so it takes time,” she had told Stabroek News.
Sampson’s throat was slashed, she was stabbed six times in the left breast, once to the right breast, one time in her left arm and she also sustained several cuts on her hands as she tried to fend off the knife used in the attack. The matter was reported to the Bartica Police Station but the man was released on $75,000 station bail and since then someone claiming to be his cousin has sent menacing text messages to her, she had said.
Yesterday she said that she had not heard back from the authorities. Sampson and her husband, who were married for eight months, lived in the compound of the Mazaruni Prison, where the assault occurred. She clarified that the captain and the Officer-in-Charge of the prison were two different persons and it was the captain who was in Bartica while the OC was at the stelling at the time the incident occurred.
