Town Clerk defends handling of sexual assault case

Town Clerk Royston King has denied interrogating the teenaged victim who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a Lance Corporal of the City Constabulary in August and informed the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) that it was not necessary for him to submit a report to the Legal Affairs and Security Committee.
The incident allegedly occurred when a 15-year-old boy was taken into custody on August 17 and placed before the court on a charge of wandering. At some point during his detention, for reasons unknown, the minor was transferred to the Regent Street Outpost where the alleged incident occurred between August 22 and 23, 2017.
The alleged perpetrator has been dismissed for gross misconduct while his colleague, who claimed that he witnessed the assault, was also given the boot after he failed to report the matter to the relevant authorities.

Although the incident occurred in August, it was never reported to the Police until October 17. The matter was also brought to the attention of the M&CC’s Legal Affairs and Security Committee after one month, and City Hall has since been accused of covering up the incident.
There have also been calls for King to be disciplined, since he knew of the incident, interviewed the victim and failed to report it.
At Monday’s Statutory Meeting, King read a prepared statement in which he sought to cast blame on the Committee for acting slothfully resulting in him reporting the incident to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for the commencement of a criminal investigation.
“The approximate one-month period with which the Committee was seized with the matter without a final report or recommendations could have possibly subjected the Council to an allegation of interference with the administration of justice, particularly in circumstances where the welfare of a child was involved where the Council, as is every other institution in Guyana, mandated by law or morally to protect. It is upon that a decision was made, by me, as the Chief Administrator of the Council and as Head of the Constabulary to turn the matter over to the Guyana Police Force,” King said.
However, this part of the statement did not go down well with Head of the Committee, Sherod Duncan, who pointed out that the Town Clerk’s actions were unacceptable, since he failed to report the incident and was yet to submit a report on his ‘interrogation’. It was identified, and attested to by Mayor Patricia Chase Green, that the work of the Committee is being stalled by the withholding of critical reports by Constables and King as well. King told the M&CC that he had since met with acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine, who has since committed to assisting the City Constabulary to build capacity. This involves training of ranks, possible secondment of officers from the Guyana Police Force to the Constabulary to help foster a greater level of discipline and more interaction between the Police Force and the Constabulary.
Reshuffling the Constabulary
The Mayor said she was utterly dissatisfied with the performance of the City Constabulary, noting that she and King were the ones that have to face public criticism for the actions of every officer at City Hall. She said there was great need for a complete overhaul of the City Constabulary while issuing a stern warning to Chief Constable Andrew Foo, to start reining in his officers.
“Nobody is attacking the Chief Constable for what is happening at the City Constabulary; they’re attacking me and the Town Clerk. Everything is Pat and Roy, and nobody is blaming Andrew and Andrew must be held accountable for all his errors,” Chase Green said.
She said Foo needed to be more proactive in the execution of his duties and that all matters must be reported immediately to the Council as opposed to having to report on it after it would have surfaced in the media.
“The Chief Constable must take the flak for all that is happening here and from the investigations department right through everybody needs reshuffling. Chief Constable I’m saying to you, if you have to have help from the national police or the Guyana Defence Force, wherever, you have to have people seconded here to straighten out the Constabulary department; you must do it,” she said.