Death for licks

Police investigating the murder of prison officer Darren Francis of Princes Town have intercepted a Whatsapp message revealing threats against prison officers if prisoners’ phones are taken away.

The message is believed to have been sent from a phone belonging to a prisoner, and said if phones are confiscated or if prisoners continue to be beaten and “taken advantage of,” more officers will be murdered.

The Homicide Bureau is now working closely with the Special Task Force assigned to the Maximum Security Prison and Cyber Crime Unit to trace who sent the message.

It has been initially linked to a member of the Unruly Isis gang of Enterprise, Chaguanas, one of whose leaders is at the Maximum Security Prison awaiting trial for several offences. He was reportedly beaten two weeks ago and is said to have vowed to seek revenge.

Yesterday, in an immediate response to the murder of prison officer Darren Francis, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith warned, “If by chance such an action was expected to cause a reaction by law enforcement, it would. Such actions would just cause us to work harder to peg back the criminal elements even more and to do more to prevent criminal elements, even if it is in the prison, from trying to continue their criminal activities outside.”

Two weeks ago Griffith set up a special task force of police and soldiers to carry out surveillance and monitor any illegal activities at the Maximum Security Prison.

Several phones and contraband items have been seized since the officers set up camp there. Yesterday relatives of several prisoners at the MSP, where Francis worked at the prison radio station, said they believe he was killed to send a message to other prison officers.

One relative of a prisoner at MSP said, “Our relative has been telling us that due to the beatings, coupled with inhumane conditions, including the poor quality of food, and searches in which phones are seized,prisoners have decided to retaliate.”

The relative, who spoke to Newsday on condition of anonymity, said prisoners have decided that they are no longer willing to be taken advantage of, as they see it.

He said, “They are fed up of the beatings and the advantage.”

Newsday learnt that on Tuesday a prisoner known as Seggie was severely beaten, and other prisoners expressed concern. Newsday was also told that on Tuesday a remand prisoner from the Princes Town area who lived not far from Francis was found with a joint of marijuana and was also beaten.

Yesterday acting Prisons Commissioner Dane Clarke described Francis as a hard-working and decent officer.

He said: “He served the prison service for 16 years and will be sadly missed.”

He said on Tuesday night he received the Whatsapp message which threatened the lives of prison officers and shared this information with the police. Clarke said he was hoping the police make some inroads into this investigation.

“I am grieved as well as others,” he said. “Officers are not coping too well with the death, they will be demoralised. But we have no reports about absenteeism.”

Yesterday the cells at several prisons were searched as part of the investigation into Francis’s murder.