The suspended police officer who has had a number of charges brought against him since police began investigating the Sept. 15 armed robbery of the wife of a cabinet minister has been charged with murder.
Investigators have charged Police Constable Ettian Charles, 32, of Arnos Vale, with the murder of Rodney George, a 50–year-old security guard of Victoria Village, who was found dead at his workplace in Arnos Vale on Sept. 1.
Charles was charged along with 34-year-old Vermont bartender Glenville Harry, and Ulric Hanson, 27, a tattoo artist, of Arnos Vale.
The trio joins Jerome Ollivierre, a 36-year-old tour guide, of Mayreau, who was charged last week with George’s murder.
The three men also join Ollivierre on a charge that between 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 31 and 11:27 a.m. on Sept. 1, at Arnos Vale, they entered G.E.C Auto Supplies Ltd. as trespassers and stole EC$2000.74 in cash.
Police are alleging that the men killed George by stabbing him in his neck with an unknown object.
George, who worked with Professional Security Services, was killed while on duty and became the nation’s 23rd homicide victim this year.
Charles has been on suspension since July 2017, when he was charged with burglarising the Postal Corporation in Kingstown and stealing EC$74,121.46 in cash and other items valued an additional EC$17,486.96.
He was further charged with corruption in public office and had been granted EC$130,000 bail.
However, he was arrested again last month as police investigated the Sept. 15 armed robbery of Reisha Twana Browne-Caesar, wife of Minister of Agriculture, Saboto Caesar, at their home in Cedars.
As a result of that investigation, Charles was charged that on Sept. 15, at Arnos Vale, he had in his possession one black and silver Smith and Wesson .38 revolver serial number unknown and six rounds of .38 ammunition, without a license issued under the Firearm Act.
He had been denied bail since his Sept. 17 arraignment, amidst a submission by Senior Prosecutor Adolphus Delplesche that investigators were fearful that the men could interfere with the investigations if granted bail at that time.
But when he returned to court last week, the suspended police officer told the court that his boss, acting Commissioner of Police Colin John, had beaten him severely after his arrest.
The acting police chief has denied the man’s claim.
Charles, along with Elroy Rogers, a 26-year-old labourer, of New Montrose, Glenville Harry, 34, self-employed, of Vermont and Rocuan Robinson, 29, a mechanic, of Campden Park, have been charged with robbery of Browne-Caesar.
Bail is not open to the accused murderers and they have been remanded into custody pending the commencement of a preliminary inquiry.
JOINT ENTERPRISE OR BELATEDLY FRAMED
When criminals acted together, they are called’… co-accused.’ The evidence often
suggest ‘…Joint Enterprise.’
Apart from the main charge of ‘…Murder,’ they also face the inevitable charge of
‘…Conspiracy to commit murder.’
It is said that ‘…A picture is worth a thousand words,’ and by this picture, IWN’s Editor,
Kenton Chance, may have provided those words.
Though Constable Ettian Charles’ face appear to show no physical signs, ‘…redness in,
and darkened lumpy spots below the eyes’ of the two co-accused (top right), save and
except they had collided with each other (very unlikely) suggests evidence of ‘…possible
police brutality.’
Instructively, the ‘…Murder charge’ came mere hours after the accused had complained to
the Magistrate of a ‘…severe whupping at the hands of the Commissioner Colin John.’
If evidence show that force was used, (irrespective by whom) to elicit confessions, ‘…a Voir dire’
(trial within a trial), could render the confessions, (if any), inadmissible as evidence against them.
From professional knowledge of what ‘…a depraved officer’ is capable of doing, seemed that
Constable Charles may have been ‘…Belatedly Framed.’.
There shall not only be be justice, but also fair play.
I’m just hoping that these crimes are being thoroughly investigated. I’m also hoping that these charges are not just “pin all the existing unsolved charges” on the accuse accused.
This man is a disgrace to all of the descent serving Police Officers in the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force. He was never a true police officer. […]
I have always felt SVG has one of the best Forces in the Caribbean when it comes to integrity. I still do. Unfortunately, there are a few bad eggs. It is imperative therefore that the Police establish a proper professional standards unit to deal with coruption and police misconduct.
I must commend the Police Force for polygraphing all Recruits. However, there is still a major challenge. How do you weed out the bad eggs that are already in the service?
if what the accused are saying is true(police brutality) then it leaves much to be desired.. it appears that we are still living in a primitive state. No human being is to be beaten by police authorities no matter hoe vile the crime is. Some of our Officers breaks the law by taking matters into their own hands. they let their emotions get the better of them and that is unprofessional. It is very interesting to say the least that charge of murder is laid against Mr. Charles so belatedly and i hope that it is not a ploy to suppress him.. I hope that there is enough evidence to support such a charge and that we are not wasting tax payers money, I guess we will see in time
Wow the accused is only 34, however, he looks very aged.
Is he really 34?
You all have short memories. Up until 2006 we had an Act that stopped all the police violence, called The Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). Gonsalves said at the time PACE was stopping the police getting convictions and put a Bill before parliament to rescind the Act, and that is what he did.
PM Gonsalves said the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) repealed by the government in 2006 had led to persons believed to have been guilty of criminal offences going free because of technicalities.
If anyone thinks that beating confessions from arrested persons in interview rooms can be classed as a technicality, we must be stupid or at least they think we are.
The PACE Act has been adopted almost Worldwide, SVG is among the minority in not having it.
https://www.iwnsvg.com/2012/03/07/pm-defends-police-evidence-law-repeal/
The Act defines the limits of the powers of police officers in the above areas and provides a series of checks and controls on the exercise of those powers.â The Act is further supplemented by a series of Codes of Practice. The 1984 Act includes Code A which deals with Stop and Search, Code B with Search of premises, Code C with Detention and Questioning of Suspects, Code D with Identification. Code E with Tape Recording and Code F on Video Recording of Interviews with Suspects have since been added. The codes have been produced by the Home Secretary of England. The Act has been amended as recent as 2005. It must be noted that PACE does not cover all the powers or duties of the police. Police powers still exist under the common law and statute, for example the Police Act.
https://searchlight.vc/searchlight/understanding-the-law/2007/03/23/what-is-pace/
The PACE Act required each and every interview to be tape recorded, that is what they wanted to do away with, the police were so pleased at the time, perhaps ever since. It also curtailed the Black Squad from making political raids at and on people property and homes.
Mr Editor, your valuable archives are today’s and tomorrows history, thank you Sir.
Not a soul commented on the victims of these serious crimes, instead, a defense seems to be in progress for the alleged criminals especially on behalf of the accused law man. People researching laws on how to pamper criminals, yet we want crimes to be reduced. Plenty people don’t want crimes to go down because it’s a profitable thing.