Trinidad: Three men charged for raping Venezuelan women in ‘fake police station’

(Trinidad Express) Bail in the sum of $350,000 has been granted to each of the three men accused of holding four Venezuelan women hostage and sexually assaulting two of them in a “fake police station” in Diego Martin.

The bail bonds were granted by Magistrate Rehanna Hosein when the men, Virgil Pompey, of Wilson Road, Diego Martin; Matthew John, a car wash attendant from Upper Bournes Road, St James; and Yohan Norgiff, of Union Road, Diego Martin, reappeared before her in the Port of Spain Court yesterday.

The trio first stood before Hosein last Thursday accused of the crimes but were all denied bail since their criminal background tracings were unavailable on that occasion.

At their reappearance yesterday, it was revealed that two of the men only had previous convictions for offences such as the use of obscene language, while the third had no previous or pending matters before the court.

Based on their record, the magistrate then proceeded to grant bail to the accused. They were represented by criminal defence attorneys Keith Scotland and Alexia Romero.

Two Fridays ago, officers of the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) raided a blue and white house at Union Road in Diego Martin, where Pompey and John were held and the women were rescued.

The accused will next appear in court on May 21.