Soldier who allegedly fractured man’s skull to face felonious wounding charge

Nov 13, 2017 News

– as man’s sight continues to deteriorate

Six months after a 57-year-old man was slammed several times to a wall before passing out, a member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) has been charged with the offence of felonious wounding.
He will be appearing in court soon, said a source close to the investigation.
According to a police source, the file which was sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) was returned and charges have been instituted against the soldier.
Linden Hastings, of Lot 374 Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara, suffered a fractured skull at the hands of a soldier on June 7, last, and since the incident he has been unable to see clearly.
“Every day my eyes are getting worse and worse. It is from one problem to another problem. Sometimes, I wake up with headache and go back to sleep with headache. This is overbearing; I am using medication but sometimes I feel as though it’s not working. My sight is so bad that I can’t even read the newspapers.”
Commander of Police ‘D’ Division, Leslie James, said that a file on the matter was sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) a few months ago for advice.
Hastings said that after the first article was published about the incident, a few police officers went to his home and took another statement from him.

The injured Linden Hastings at the hospital

Hastings said that the following day, he received a phone call and was instructed to go to the station where he had a confrontation with the soldier.
He said that he was told by a police officer to relate his side of what transpired when he went to a mosque to pray.
The man said that after he left the station, he went to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) where he was informed that the file was sent for them to recommend charges against the soldier who assaulted him.
The man said that for now, he is just relaxing at home waiting for the court date, since he cannot work as a result of his injuries. “Right now I’m just at home because I’m still feeling a lot of pain and still using a lot of medication.”
Hastings received his injuries while he was attending service at a Masjid.
This allegedly happened after he told a member of the Guyana Defence Force that a young woman that the rank had invited could not sit in the male section of the Mosque, because she was not a Muslim.
He said that after the soldier and the woman left the Masjid, he too went outside.
It was then that the soldier allegedly confronted him and began verbally abusing him before punching him in the face and slamming his head to the wall several times until he passed out.
His wife, who was at the upper floor of the Masjid, had to render assistance to him after she saw him lying motionless on the ground.
With the assistance of a taxi driver, they rushed him to the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
He was then transferred to the GPHC where he was admitted and underwent several tests, one being a CT scan which showed that he sustained a fractured skull.