“I am glad it’s all over” – Irish teen

TIMES INT'L

An Irish teenager expressed regret and relief following the dismissal of criminal charges against him for making a drunken threat against Guyana’s president. Cillian James Crossan said he was eager to move past the incident.
“I am happy it’s all over,” 17- year-old Cillian, from Co Louth, Ireland said. “If I could do anything to change what happened I would,” the Irish Independent reported him as saying.

Cillian James Crossan
Cillian James Crossan

Cillian is spending a year in Guyana as a volunteer teacher. He was arrested in April after a conversation with two bodyguards of President Donald Ramotar, in which he said he would shoot the leader.
Crossan was accused of threatening to shoot the Guyanese leader at City Boy Club, Tabatinga, Lethem. He had appeared before Magistrate Judy Latchman at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on April 2.
According to the police, on March 29 at Central Rupununi, Crossan said he would shoot the president who was not present at the time, but Amerindian Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary Nigel Dharamlall overheard the comment and approached the young man, asking him what he said and he repeated that he would shoot the president in his head.
The matter was then reported.
The director of public prosecutions (DPP) last week dropped charges against the teenager.
Crossan’s lawyer, Glenn Hanoman had said the teen was having an alcohol-fuelled conversation with two bodyguards of the president at an international rodeo event in April and was joking when he said he would shoot and kill Ramotar – saying it because he did not believe the two men were really the president’s bodyguards.
The president was not there at the time.
“He had been drinking beer since early the morning and had even mixed rum and beer and had them at the same time,” Hanoman said. “I think that was the main factor at play when he argued with two of the guards.”
Prosecutor Vishnu Hunte had objected to bail, stating that the threat was aimed at the president of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and that the defendant is also a flight risk. Crossan gave a caution statement, admitting to what he did. However, Crossan pleaded not guilty to the charge and was released on Gy$ 60,000 bail.

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