Twenty-four-year-old Noah Beaton, a security officer who confessed to the murder of Toshao Ridley Joseph was on Friday arraigned with the crime when he appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Beaton was not required to plead to the indictment and was remanded to prison until January 31, 2025.
Beaton who was represented by Attorney-at-Law Bernard Da Silva had confessed to fatally stabbing Joseph, 37, at the Signature Inn Hotel in Queenstown, Georgetown, on Monday, December 16, 2024.
Remanded: Noah Beaton
Joseph, an Indigenous leader from Tasserene Village, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) was stabbed 19 times to his face, neck, and chest.
“I was informed that the accused and deceased are known to each other and he was allegedly sexually abused from age six to 10… the now deceased was asked to confess and on the refusal of that request the deceased chose to again make sexual advances on the very night, that triggered the accused of what the psychologist would describe as internalised anger and he reacts rather than responding,” Da Silva stated.
According to police reports, Beaton turned himself in at the Brickdam Police Station one day after committing the crime and confessed to killing Joseph. In his confession, Beaton alleged that the attack stemmed from years of unresolved anger over sexual abuse he claimed Joseph inflicted on him as a child, starting when he was a primary school student.
Hotel staff discovered Joseph’s lifeless body in room 135 after noticing bloodstains on the walkway and a hole in the door. Investigators later revealed that Joseph had checked into the hotel on Sunday evening and was last seen with an unidentified male entering the room in the early hours of Monday.
