A prisoner was stabbed by another inmate on Monday while at the Golden Grove Remand Prison, Arouca.
The prisoner, Bernard Brown, 26, is said to be warded in a critical condition at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope.
He was attacked in his cell by an inmate armed with a sharp object, according to prison officers. He was stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest. The motive is yet to be established.
Brown is facing a charge of possession of marijuana and was waiting for his bail to be approved by the Mayaro magistrate.
However, speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Brown’s sister, Sandy Ravello, said her brother’s attacker allegedly sent a message to CNC3’s Crime Watch Ian Alleyne.
“My brother told me that the prisoner who stabbed him said to tell Ian about what he did. I do not know the reason,” Ravello said.
She appeared on Alleyne’s show on Monday to talk about what happened to her brother.
On Friday, Ravello and her sister, Hazel Brown, 22, were at CNC3’s office, Guardian Building, St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain, to complain to Alleyne about their alleged abuse while in police custody at the Mayaro Police Station.
While waiting to see Alleyne at about 4 pm, Hazel, who was two months pregnant, began to experience pains in her abdomen. She also suffered haemorrhaging and had to be taken away by ambulance to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. She was discharged yesterday after suffering a miscarriage.
She said last Thursday she and Hazel were seated in a PH taxi they had hired to take them to the remand prison to visit Brown when the car was pulled over by police during a roadblock in Mayaro.
“I do not know what they pulled us over for but they told me and my sister to get out of the vehicle and get into the police car. They took us to the Mayaro Police Station and began to beat us up. The police were telling us to say we were relatives of some man but we don’t know who they were talking about,” Ravello said.
However, corporate communications head of the Police Service Ellen Lewis on Monday said the women were arrested and taken to the Mayaro Police Station. They were charged for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and using obscene language. They were granted bail in the sum of $5,000 each and ordered to reappear on August 8 before a Mayaro magistrate, he said.
He said one of the women, who complained of feeling unwell, was taken to the Mayaro Health Centre where she was examined by a doctor and found to be in good health.
The woman was returned to the police station. Lewis said the women appeared before a magistrate on Friday but made no complaint of abuse.
An official at the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), who wished not to be identified, said they knew of the alleged incident and assured that an investigation would be launched. Ravello made a complaint to the PCA on Monday.
Hours later, a letter was sent to Crime Watch’s office from the Director of the PCA, David West, requesting a copy of Friday’s Crime Watch show.