Tortured teen awarded millions in compensation

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Monday June 20, 2011 – A 16-year-old Guyanese boy whose genitals were burned by police who were questioning him in connection with murder back in 2009, has been awarded GUY$6.5 million (US$31,909).

The attorney acting on Twyon Thomas’ behalf had sued the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police, and the two officers who tortured the then 14-year-old – Sergeant Narine Lall and Constable Mohanram Dulai – for at least GUY$25 million (US$122,729) in compensation. But even though Justice Roxanne George found that the teenager’s fundamental rights were violated and described his treatment as “degrading, humiliating and debasing”, she ordered the payment of a smaller amount.

USVI man indicted on child porn charges

ST. THOMAS, U.S Virgin Islands, June 15, 2011 – A 21-year-old man was indicted yesterday for possession and production of child pornography and charged with 24 counts of aggravated rape. The charges related to his sexual relations with an eight-year-old girl.

The indictment of Akeem Gumbs followed an investigation by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S Virgin Islands Police Department.

Gumbs had been arrested at his home in March after local police presented ICE with a DVD containing clips of him having sex with the girl.

Police to probe fraud in award of government contracts

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday June 1, 2011 – Information implicating three Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) Parish Councilors in alleged fraud in the award of Government contracts is now being investigated by police and has also triggered a wider probe.

The multi-million dollar scam involved a fake contractor getting contracts from the country’s largest Parish Council, the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Council (KSAC), and then passing over money paid for that work to the three implicated Councilors and a KSAC staff member.

Jamaican police searching for 'Devil Head', 'Tittyman'

DETECTIVES from the Kingston Western Division are seeking the public’s assistance in locating 12 persons for questioning.

These individuals have been identified as persons of interest and are to report at the Denham Town Police Station no later than 1:00 pm tomorrow.

St Lucia shootout fuels debate over extrajudicial killings

CASTRIES, St Lucia, By their own account, the police said they had been monitoring five men who attempted to rob a restaurant in the south of the island, and in the ensuing gun battle, four were shot and killed, while the fifth died a few days later in hospital.

Autopsies are to be performed on the five men Tuesday. But the May 5 killings have rekindled a simmering debate as to whether the police here are engaging in extrajudicial assassinations, following rumours that some alleged criminals killed since the start of the year were on a death list drawn up by St. Lucia law enforcement officials.

Police consider technology to help fight crime

Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of National Security Dr. Errol Cort said the meeting comes at a critical time for the region.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, – Police Commissioners from across the region will spend the next four days considering how they can better utilize technology to stay ahead of criminals.

The more than 20 top cops, together with officials from several related regional and international organizations in law enforcement, today begin the 26th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) under the theme ‘Harnessing Technology for the Advancement of Law Enforcement’.

Their meeting continues until Thursday.

Bermuda mulls sending gangsters to overseas jails.

Bermuda has been plagued by a worsening gang and gun crime problem.

HAMILTON, Bermuda, – National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief says the country is looking into shipping out convicted gangsters to serve their time in jails overseas in an attempt to break up Bermuda’s gangs and ease friction between gang members in the local prison system.

Extortion down in Spanish Town Jamaica

WITH the recent conviction of leader Tesha Miller and the deaths of several of their more notorious cronies, police say 'Klansman' gangsters are losing their grip on business in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

"Klansman is disappearing more and more and what we are seeing is a rise in the confidence and security of consumers and businesses," said Deputy Police Superintendent Victor Hamilton, one of the commanders in the St Catherine North police division.

Moving final farewell for 4 murdered by cop

Aldith Townsend (left), daughter of Valdie Brown, who journeyed from Germany to be at the funeral service, could not contain her grief when the caskets bearing her mother, stepfather, brother and cousin were opened in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ocho Rios yesterday.

Some journeyed from the nearby parish of St Mary, to as far as Hanover in the west. Others flew in from the United States and Germany to pay their last respects to four persons whose savage murders last month shocked the nation and the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

The dead were wheeled inside the small Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ocho Rios yesterday in the same order in which they were viciously shot by Detective Corporal Wayne Llewellyn in Three Hills, St Mary, during a brutal attack on one family at their home on April 7.

More cops to hit the streets of Jamaica

Graduates march and twirl their weapons to the tune of the popular song Eye of the Tiger during their passing-out parade at the Twickenham Park Police Academy in St Catherine on Friday.

TWO hundred and ninety-one new policemen and women have joined the ranks of the Jamaica Constabulary Force following a Passing Out Ceremony at the Police Training School in Twickenham Park on Friday.
This latest batch of graduates has been charged by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who gave the keynote address at the event, to play their part in rebuilding the organisation's image.

Golding welcomed the graduates, saying their addition to the force could not have come at a better time.
"You were specially chosen, and those who made the selection saw in you something that they did not see in the others," said Golding, who applauded the graduates for ignoring the negative criticisms they may have encountered from members of the public when they made the decision to join the force.

Retired cop kills three, commits suicide

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Monday April 18, 2011 – A police officer and her son are among the victims of the country’s latest murder-suicide – committed by a former lawman – less than two weeks after a police corporal carried out a similar crime. 

Retired police sergeant Osbourne Whitton, 58, killed Corporal Bevon Hutchinson-Anderson, who celebrated her 43rd birthday yesterday; her 12-year-old son Keinon Shaw and the boy’s father, Rohan Shaw, 45, late last night, before turning the gun on himself.

Cut crime and GDP could increase 5%, says World Bank

JAMAICA could grow its annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 5.4 percentage points, if the country reduces its crime levels to that of Costa Rica. The suggestion was made by the World Bank in its 2011 World Development Report.

The Report shows that Jamaica spends U$S385 million, or J$33 billion a year, on indirect medical and other costs related to crime and violence.

Jamaican cop kills wife's family, commits suicide

Corporal Wayne Llewellyn shot his wife and four members of her family before killing himself.


KINGSTON, Jamaica, Fiday April 8, 2011 – A police officer whose marital problems apparently pushed him over the edge, yesterday shot his estranged wife, her parents, her daughter and her brother before turning the gun on himself.

Dead are Corporal Wayne Llewellyn, his 16-year-old stepdaughter Jorjhan Flynn; mother-in-law Rachel Brown, 79; father-in-law Voldy Brown, 73; and brother-in- law, Fitzroy Townsend. His 40-year-old wife, Joan,is in critical condition.

Missing Dominican girl found

Jemmott had gone missing on February 17. She’d left home to attend classes at the Isaiah Thomas Secondary School but never showed up. (Photo: Facebook)

ROSEAU, Dominica, Wednesday March 30, 2011 – The 15-year-old girl who went missing for 40 days has been found alive and a man held in connection with her disappearance.

Shanice Jemmott was found underneath a tarpaulin in the community of Hillsborough, in the western parish of St Joseph, wearing the same school skirt she was dressed in when she went missing, Police Commissioner Cyril Carette disclosed. She was taken to hospital to be examined.

Man commits suicide in police station

Officers on duty went to check on him and found him hanging from the cell door with a pair of shoe laces tied around his neck. He had no pulse and didn’t appear to be breathing.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, – A Jamaican-born man, who’d reportedly tried to commit suicide twice before, took his life in a cell at a police station in Antigua over the weekend as officers stood a stone’s throw away unaware of what was taking place.
Dwayne Davis, a 26-year-old father of one, was found hanging on Saturday morning. He had turned himself in at the Gray’s Farm Police Station that day after an in-law reported to police that he had threatened her.
In a statement outlining the circumstances surrounding his death, police said when the man arrived at the station he saw his wife in the waiting area and became angry, speaking to officers “in a loud and aggressive manner”.
The lawmen and his wife tried to calm him down, according to the police account, but he only got more agitated and disorderly.

Three charged in hold-up of tourists

BASSETERRE, St Kitts, – Police have charged three of the four men they arrested this week in connection with robbing a group of cruise ship passengers on Sunday, and another two are expected to be added to the list.

Police spokesman Vaughn Henderson has confirmed that the three men in their 20s – Devon Hodge, Junior ‘Cue’ Sabratie, and Glenville Rogers – have been formally charged with armed robbery.

“I have been reliably informed as well that warrants have been prepared for not only a fourth person but a fifth person…so investigators could very well be in the process of charging a fourth person and also a fifth person,” he added.

Henderson said the Police High Command, in particular, was grateful to the public for their overwhelming support during the last couple days, which helped them to track down the suspects.

It was on Sunday that a tour bus carrying 17 visitors (including a child), who arrived in the island on the Celebrity Mercury, was ambushed as it was heading to a popular tourist attraction, Brimstone Hill, in the north-west of the island.

According to police, the driver got out of the bus to move a tree branch that was in the road when someone threw a rock at the windshield. Armed, masked men reportedly then rushed from the bushes, boarded the bus and held the visitors at gunpoint, taking their money, jewelry, cell phones and other personal items.

The incident prompted two cruise ships to cancel its stops in St Kitts this week and dock in Antigua instead.

Caribbean360

Police searching for Dudus replacement

Lawmen release a list of the 16 most wanted and at the top of the list is a man they believe is becoming the crime boss in western Kingston.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday November 17, 2010 – The man believed to be filling the spot of west Kingston crime boss now that Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is gone is at the top of the list of the country’s most wanted.

Police say Omar ‘Fowl’ Miller is now know as the interim leader of the Tivoli Gardens Gang.

Coke was caught in June, a few weeks after a battle between his supporters and the security forces in Tivoli Gardens and surrounding areas, and subsequently extradited to the US where he has been charged with drug dealing and gun running. Miller, who moved out of the community just before police and soldiers went in search of Coke is said to be trying to take over.

“He is also attempting to retrieve weapons from gang members that were issued by the leadership of the gang in preparation for the confrontation with security forces in May of this year, but this is being resisted by the members. He is also influencing criminal activities within the Kingston Western Division,” Deputy Superintendent Arthur Brown told a press conference yesterday as the names of the wanted men were released.

Others on the list include “the number one gang leader in St Andrew Central”, Christopher "Dog Paw" Linton who has eluded several police dragnets.

Superintendent Derrick Knight told reporters that Linton has no regard for lawmen.

“Even when information or messages are sent to him to come in, the reply is ‘Yu haffi get pass mi gun’,” he said, adding that the gang leader’s weapon of choice is the AK-47.

The senior officer added that Linton’s organizing ability is “almost second to none in terms of influencing the youths and the citizens in the August Town area”.

Linton is also alleged to be a significant player in the extortion activities in and around August Town and Papine, in the southeastern parish of St Andrew.

Of the 16 people on the list, 10 are being sought in connection with murder while the others are wanted for shootings.

The other 14 on the list are: Colin Hugh Brooks, Ricardo Wright, Nicholas Hayman, Allando Hibbert, Steve Dudley alias Lance Edwards-Stone, Randy Rodman aka ‘Cardo’, Andre ‘Harry Dawg’ Marsden, Delroy ‘Pops’ Dennis, Patrick Salmon alias ‘Speedy, Tremaine ‘Piggy’ Lindsay, Sheldon Rowe, Carl Stewart who is also known as ‘Cougar’ or ‘Sheriff’, Justin Berry, and Andre Thomas.
Source: Caribbean360