Teen sues Police for over $100M

…tells court her fundamental rights were breached

Weeks after suing the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) for failing to remove her from the East La Penitence Police Station, where she alleges she had been detained with adult female prisoners, a 14-year-old girl has filed a similar claim against two Police ranks, the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General (the defendants) over what she termed was her unlawful arrest and detention.
In the claim filed on Monday at the Demerara High Court, the girl is seeking damages of more than $100M for breach of her fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution of Guyana; damages in excess of $15M for breach of the Juvenile Offenders Act; damages of more than $30M against the defendants for negligence; and damages in excess of $10M for false imprisonment.
She is also asking the court to declare that her fundamental rights were breached, and to grant several declarations against Police Constable Orlando Harris and Police Corporal Amelia James, who she said arrested and supervised her detention at the station; and against the Police Commissioner, for breaching the Constitution, the Juvenile Offenders Act, and The Convention on the Rights of a Child.
In proceedings filed on her behalf by her adult sister, the girl deposed that between December 3 and 7, 2020, she was held against her will at the East La Penitence Police station in a narcotics investigation. She said that on December 7, 2020, a bail application and habeas corpus proceedings in favour of her were heard by Chief Justice Roxane George, and she was later released into the custody of the CC&PA.
The girl has complained that, during that period, she was kept in the prisoners’ cell at the station with adult female prisoners, contrary to the provisions of the law, in particular the Juvenile Offenders Act, and duties imposed on the two Police ranks and the Commissioner of Police.
She has alleged that she was subjected to sleeping in an upright position on a wooden chair; sleeping on a mattress and cardboard on the cold concrete floor; predatory sexual advances by other female prisoners; being foot-cuffed to a wooden chair by her ankles for hours; and infinite pain and trauma.
Specifically, she has said that one adult female prisoner told her she wanted to perform oral sex on her, and made sexual comments about her breasts.
Moreover, she complained that she was repeatedly pressured by Constable Harris and Corporal James to confess or disclose the names of alleged conspirators in the absence of a lawyer and/or adult relative, and a caution in accordance with the law.
Apart from being repeatedly induced and threatened to confess or name suspects or face adverse consequences by Constable Harris, the girl said, she was arrested by a male Police rank, Constable Harris, instead of a female rank.
Her lawyer, Eusi Anderson, contends that the above-named Police ranks and the Commissioner of Police had a primary duty, and the Attorney General had a secondary duty, to ensure that the statutory duty imposed on them by the Juvenile Offenders Act, the Rights of the Child Convention, and the Constitution was discharged.

Convention on the Rights of the Child
Considering the above, the lawyer argues, his client’s constitutional rights under Article 40, Article 139, Article 141, Article 142 (1), and Article 153, among other articles of the Constitution, to proscribe cruel and inhuman treatment, false imprisonment, and wrongful deprivation of liberty of citizens, were infringed upon.
Anderson has said The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Guyana has adopted, imposes duties on the State to ensure that no child is subjected to torture or other inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment; that no child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily; and that the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law, and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.
The lawyer is urging the court to grant the reliefs sought in the claim as well as costs, interest pursuant to the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act on all monetary awards for damages, and any such or other orders the court deems just.
Meanwhile, against the CC&PA Director Ann Greene, and the agency itself, the girl is asking the court for more than $25M in damages for breach of her fundamental rights, as well as several declarations, including one that Greene breached the duty of care to her imposed by Guyana’s accession to, and ratification of, The Convention on the Rights of the Child. (G1)