State to pay for prison beating

He made the point yesterday while ruling that Rajesh Mathura’s constitutional rights to security and protection of his person while in police custody were infringed when he was attacked, wounded and robbed by three other prisoners in the holding cell at the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court in 1998. The judge ordered the State to pay Mathura monetary compensation and his legal costs.

Narine also criticised the poor police handling of the investigation, which resulted in the three prisoners accused of wounding and robbing Mathura being set free. He was also critical of allowing a police sergeant to prosecute the matter. Narine suggested that an attorney should prosecute in matters which may involve the conduct of police or prisons officers. He also chided the authorities over the lack of proper searches of prisoners.

On February 12, 1998, Mathura was arrested on a charge of assault occasioning a wound and pleaded not guilty before a San Fernando magistrate. Bail was fixed and he was placed in the holding cell with 25 other prisoners.

A prisoner named Andrew Thomas used a cigarette lighter to set fire to a jersey which he threw on some food boxes. Another prisoner, Mc David, took a piece of iron chain and hit Mathura on his head. Mc David and another prisoner, Briggs, demanded Mathura’s shirt and proceeded to cut him on his back with a razor blade. The three men then beat Mathura and took away his shirt. Despite the fact that Mathura called for help and there was smoke coming from the cell, the police took 20 minutes to respond. Mathura was the last to be removed from the cell. By that time, 30 minutes had elapsed since the incident. Instead of taking him for medical attention, however, they bundled him into the prison van and drove off. It was only because of the pounding on the van by other prisoners that the van returned and Mathura was taken to the hospital.

Mathura’s constitutional motion was argued by Rajiv Persad, instructed by F Mohammed, while the State was represented by Linda Khan, instructed by Rehanna Hosein.

What concerned the court was that in spite of security procedures to physically search prisoners and also have them pass through metal detectors, three prisoners were able to arm themselves with a lighter, a razor blade and, inconceivably, a piece of chain. "Clearly the system is inadequate, or the police officers responsible for searching the prisoners did not carry out a thorough search. This case clearly demonstrates that the system in place for handling such persons is woefully inadequate," warned Narine.

Also of concern was the fact that 25 prisoners were placed in one cell. "There is no evidence of any system whereby prisoners are separated according to their potential or proclivity for violent behaviour. A prisoner arrested on a maintenance warrant, or for failure to appear on a traffic charge, may be sharing the same cell as repeat offenders for robbery with violence or even murder.