No home for dad on cremation charge

SELF PROCLAIMED spiritual healer Lawrence Reid, 70, who is charged with cremating a 17-month-old child is refusing to be taken into a geriatric home.

Reid, who met with a  social  worker and police and court officials yesterday strongly opposed plans to send  him to a home where he  would be under close care and  supervision.  Reid reportedly said he would prefer to remain at  his Salazar Trace, Point Fortin, home. Reid and his wife, Sandra, were granted their own bonds in the  sum of $30,000 each last week. They spent two months at the St Ann’s Hospital after Point Fortin Magistrate Rae Roopchand ordered that they receive psychiatric evaluation.

The couple was  arrested on October 18 and  were initially charged with conducting a cremation without a license, performing a cremation within 100 yards of a dwelling house and disposing of human remains in a  place not designated for such a purpose. The incidents are believed to have occurred between September 1 and 2 last year. The couple was subsequently charged with negligence of their children. The wife was taken in by relatives last week after signing her own bond.

The couple’s three surviving children, who are between the ages of three and six and who were given obscene names by their parents, are being kept in a children’s home. The Reid’s are due to re-appear in  court January 27.