Miner charged with chopping man over theft accusation

 

A Lethem man was placed on $100,000 bail yesterday after denying that he chopped another man to the head and the body after being called a thief.

Forty-year old Ken Moore, a miner in the Marudi Mountains, pleaded not guilty when a charge of unlawful wounding was read to him by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry. It was alleged that Moore, on April 12, unlawfully and maliciously wounded David Sugrim with a cutlass.

According to Prosecutor Michael Grant, on the date in question the defendant and his alleged victim were at a mining camp in the South Rupununi region at about 3pm when Moore was accused by Sugrim of having stolen a dredge part.

Moore, Grant said, became annoyed and dealt Sugrim several chops about the body, injuring the man’s forehead, right forearm, and right palm.

The man was represented by attorneys Michael Somersall and Paul Fung-a-Fat, who emphasised that their client had no previous trouble with the law. “He has an unblemished record, Your Worship,” Fung-a-Fat said.

The miner was granted $100,000 bail and the case was transferred to the Lethem Magistrate’s Court for June 2.