Police officers accused of beating four men charged with robbing popular Roman Catholic priest Father Clyde Harvey have denied any wrongdoing and have suggested the men were “touched by the hands of God.”
Police prosecutor Azard Ali offered this explanation yesterday when Christian Huggins, 19, Miguel Collins, 18, Dion Gillard, 31 and a 17-year-old, whose name has been withheld because he is a minor, reappeared in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court to apply for bail. He was responding to complaints from the men’s attorneys that they had been beaten to confess to the crime.
Ali admitted, however, that the police did not take the men to hospital for treatment, as had been ordered by a magistrate when the men first appeared in court on Tuesday.
Magistrate Adrian Darmanie made note of the lawyers’ complaints and Ali’s explanation, but said the issue of the alleged confessions had to be resolved during the eventual trial of the case.
At yesterday’s hearing, Ali presented the men’s criminal records, which were not available when they first appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon. It showed that Huggins, Gillard and the teenager all had pending cases and/or previous convictions for robbery offences. Collins had a clean criminal record.
Ali objected to bail and said the court should consider their records, the heinous nature of the crime they are alleged to have committed and the fact that investigators had strong evidence against them, including confessions from Huggins and Collins, as well as the recovery of the stolen items.
“In the interest of the public they should be kept in custody. It appears the public is not safe anywhere, even in church,” Ali said.
The men’s lawyers contended that their clients had to benefit from the presumption of innocence.
Darmanie then granted Huggins and Collins bail, but denied Gillard and the teen since they had been charged with the crime while on bail for similar offences committed as recently as June 5.
Huggins was granted $200,000 bail while Collins was granted $150,000 bail. Both were ordered to report to the police twice weekly for the duration of the case.
The accused are charged with breaking and entering the St Martin’s de Porres RC Church at Hermitage Road, Gonzales and falsely imprisoning Fr Harvey last Monday.