Four days before the second anniversary of the July 25, 2015, prison break which left three dead and traumatised citi?zens, the Prisons Officers’ Association (POA) is accusing those in charge of the probe of dragging their feet.
At a press conference at the association’s Arouca office yesterday, president Ceron Richards again called on the Police Service to give an update into the probe which was conducted into the incident, saying the suspended officers — acting Superintendent of Prison Wilbert Lovell and Prison Officers Two Lancelot Duntin and Mervyn Pierre — were merely scapegoats.
“Almost two years after there is no report from the Commissioner of Police. We are still at a point where we do not have a police investigation as to how the guns got into the prison,” Richards said.
His comments also came in wake of a the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security earlier this month, at which members expressed concern and dissatisfaction with the “tardiness” of the Public Service Commission (PSC) in respect of the disciplinary proceedings arising out of the prison break. Among other things the JSC noted was that the commission took a year and a half to set up a disciplinary tribunal to deal with the issue of sanctions against the three prisons officers, who have been on suspension, with half pay, for about two years.
Attorney Farid Scoon, who was also present yesterday and who is representing Lovell and Duntin, said he wrote to the commission and was still awaiting on “full disclosure” from the PSC as he is yet to receive documents and statements. “The Public Service Commission is undermining the process of justice at the tribunal level,” Scoon said.
He said when the tribunal met on July 13 and 18 this year, no prosecutor was present and the matter could not proceed. Saying when the prison break occurred there was a general election a few months after, Scoon added, “There are too many unanswered questions, leading us to believe that this fiasco involving the suspension of the officers is nothing other than a political charade.”
On July 24, 2015, prisoners Allan ‘Scanny’ Martin, Hassan Atwell and Christopher ‘Monster’ Selby shot their way out of the Port-of-Spain prison. Police officer Sherman Maynard was killed during the breakout while prison officer Leon Rouse was shot and wounded.
Martin was killed during a shoot-out with law enforcement, and Atwell was murdered after hiding out in Port-of-Spain. Selby eventually surrendered to officers at the Barataria Police Station.
The prison break occurred six months after the executive of the Prison Service were informed of a possible escape from the prison during one of its meetings at the Prison’s Administration Building, Phillip Street, Port-of-Spain.Yesterday, Richards said Lovell, Duntin and Pierre had received this information some four minutes before the break and tried their best to act before the escape took place.
Calls to acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams went unanswered yesterday.