Mom in custody, children still at police station

FOUR children who were in the house in which police captured escaped prisoners Michael Findley and Olatunji Denbow, on Saturday evening, are still being kept at the Oropouche Police station.

This is because the Children’s Authority has no place to house them, a senior police officer told the Newsday last night.

The officer said until the authority found a place to house the three girls and one boy, or they were released in the care of a guardian, the Child Protection Unit would have to look after them at the station.

There is a room with beds, specifically designed for this purpose at the station.

The officer said, “You see government passed legislation and put policies in place but there is no infrastructure. We (police) have problems with that. Nothing has been set aside for this and the unit depends on NGO’s to take these children off their hands.”

The children who are between the ages of two and 16, have not been charged.

Their mother, the only adult at the house at Ralph Narine Trace, South Oropouche, was taken into custody when the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) along with officers from the Defence Force descended in the rural village and arrested Findley and Denbow. The two had been on the run for 11 days, after escaping from the Golden Grove prison at Arouca, with six others.

Police said the woman was facing criminal charges for harbouring the two and other charges relating to neglect as she left the minors in the house with Findley and Denbow who are facing a 2016 double-murder charge.

Police said the woman was not at home at the time when police arrested the two.

Her husband, who is originally from Diego Martin, is serving a jail term after he was convicted for rape, attempted murder, false imprisonment and robbery of a female special reserve police (SRP) constable.

That incident reportedly happened on the morning of the last local government elections as the SRP, who was on her way to take up duty at a polling station, boarded a taxi he was driving around 3 am at La Romaine.

According to the evidence heard before the court, the driver stopped at a service station for fuel but instead of taking her to the polling station he drove to a secluded area in South Oropouche, where he robbed her of jewellery and her police jacket.

He raped her until she fought with him and was able to get away. It was alleged that when she ran off, he fired two shots behind her but the bullets missed and the gun stuck.

At the time of his conviction, his wife was pregnant.