2 murder accused, 2 others escape from Lusignan Prison

Four prisoners, including two murder suspects, escaped from the holding area of the Lusignan Prison on Monday morning.

Two of the escapees are Anthony Padmore, 26, of Ogle Street, Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara, who was serving a three-year sentence for trafficking in cannabis and Sasenarine Bisnauth of Lot 22 Tuschen Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), who was charged with armed robbery.

The two other inmates were on remand for separate murders. Thirty-two-year-old Ganesh Dhanraj of Parika Façade, EBE, was charged for strangling 29-year-old Dhanwattie Ram, the mother of his three children, with a bedsheet at their Parika Façade, East Bank Essequibo home in April 2017. The victim was subjected to repeated domestic abuse.

The other escapee is Kenraul Perez, 26, of Mabaruma, North West District, Region One, who was charged with the murder of Abary rice farm labourer, Tribhowan Singh.

Singh, 55, was found knifed to death on his employer’s rice farm on February 24, 2018. It was reported that the killing may have stemmed from a land dispute.
Tribhowan Singh’s body was discovered by his boss, Kumar Latchman, who went to visit the rice farm. The corpse was in a clump of bushes next to a trailer.
However, in a release to the media, the Guyana Prison Service confirmed that the four inmates escaped at about 03:46h during the heavy downpours but the official discovery was made during roll-call at 06:15h when they did not answer to their names.

Nevertheless, the CCTV recordings from surveillance cameras proved that the men escaped by jumping the eastern fence.
The ranks on duty at the time of the incident have been interrogated and are cooperating fully with the police and prison authorities.
Thus far, no rank has been found culpable or would have aided in the escape of the men. Meanwhile, members of the Joint Services are on the hunt for the four men. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the escapees is asked to contact the nearest police station.
Over the past years, several persons have escaped from the Lusignan Penitentiary but have subsequently been recaptured. In 2017, 35-year-old alleged rapist Dellon Blake, of Kumuni Creek, Demerara River, used his bed sheet and wooden pallets to climb over the fence of the prison.
It was reportedly done in full view of Police ranks who were performing duties in the guard hut tower overlooking the new holding facility. Blake was charged for the rape of an elderly woman.
In 2018, three prisoners escaped by also scaling the fence between towers three and four which were equipped with security personnel.
They were 23-year-old Travis Evans of C Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown; Sudesh Dyal, 23, of Wales Backdam and Dexroy Pollard, 29, of Wales Village. Evans is a murder accused.
It was reported that the three men had taken a considerable amount of time to make their way through the razor wire.
“It is clear, especially taking into consideration the close proximity of the two towers and the number of ranks deployed in those two towers that those ranks were not alert,” the Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels had stated back then.
In addition, following the fire in 2017 at the Camp Street Penitentiary, the Lusignan Prison was used as a holding facility with several holding areas.
However, after a few days at the facility, 13 inmates had escaped by digging a hole under the perimeter fence. The hole was about five feet in length and another five feet deep.
Those who had escaped were murder accused Clive Forde, Pascal Smith, Kerry Cromwell, Odel Roberts, Kendell Skeet, Rayon Jones, Jason Howard, Shawn Harris, Paul Goriah and Jamal Forde, along with Teshawn McKenzie and Winston Long, who were incarcerated for armed robbery and Jamal Joseph, who was remanded on an attempted murder charge.
Paul Goriah, whose last known address was given as Grove Squatting Area, East Bank Demerara, was the only person who was not recaptured and remains on the run to date. The Lusignan Prison is located on the East Coast of Demerara, with more than 300 prisoners.