Govt. finally clears trench outside Freddie Kissoon’s home

Workers returned yesterday to clear the section of waterway in front of Freddie Kissoon’s home.

The highlighting of an appallingly petty move by the relevant authorities has apparently brought them to their senses, as drainage and irrigation workers returned early yesterday morning to clear the section of the trench that they had inexplicably missed, in front of the home of columnist Freddie Kissoon.
The exercise, which otherwise had gone relatively unnoticed, did have its fair share of attention yesterday, as passersby stopped to observe the goings-on and give their opinions on the issue.
Many expressed that Mr. Kissoon’s unrelenting criticism of the administration had led to this vindictive response.
However, a senior official of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), who deemed the many reports on the matter as “nonsense”, rejected this notion.
According to the party’s General Secretary, Donald Ramotar, he spoke to the foreman of the clearing exercise yesterday on the report that was carried in this newspaper and the official denied that he even knew that Kissoon lived there.
“I think that it is nonsense to say that Freddie Kissoon’s home was bypassed.”
As a matter of fact, the Parliamentarian said, there were no instructions to skip the area in front of Kissoon’s home, located on the Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara.
On Wednesday, workers preparing for the upcoming UNASUR meeting that Guyana is hosting this month-end, cleared the waterway from the UG access road to just before the CARICOM headquarters, but left a large patch of duckweed in front of Kissoon’s home.
The outspoken columnist described it as a clear act of discrimination.
Yesterday, President of Guyana Press Association, Gordon Moseley, in a comment on the incident, said that he hopes that it is just a mistake or a lack of judgment.
“I hope that Guyana has not become that petty as a nation.” Many drivers had stopped Wednesday to stare in disbelief at the scene.
According to Kissoon, workers told him that they had been contracted to clean the canal, located immediately south of the embankment. They also said that they were ordered not to clear the trench in front of Kissoon’s home.
Asked to explain this, Works Minister, Robeson Benn, on Wednesday said that there were two teams clearing the canal and they were working from the two extremities. He said that when they called it a day they had reached the section of the canal outside Kissoon’s home.
Minister Benn had said that anyone who concluded that Kissoon was being targeted is promoting a conspiracy theory. He said that there was nothing to the non-clearance of the section of canal outside Kissoon’s home. “Don’t jump to conclusions. Everything will be cleared by tomorrow (yesterday)”.
He said that the government would not be so petty and any evidence of this is merely coincidental.
Kissoon is adamant that it was a clear case of spite by government authorities and a direct attack on the sensibilities of Guyanese where one citizen has been attacked because he dared to speak out.
It was only a few months ago that Kissoon was attacked during a visit to a supermarket on Robb Street. At that time, the columnist was about to enter his vehicle when a man threw faeces on him. His attacker then escaped in a waiting car.

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Couple punched and vomited on girls outside club

A MAN was in court last Friday (October 29) for deliberately throwing up over a girl outside a club in Guildford, before his girlfriend punched another reveller in the face.

William Wilson was arrested after vomiting down a girl’s top on purpose by sticking two fingers in his throat as she stood outside Diva’s Bar in Park Street. He was charged with assault by beating.

His 21-year-old girlfriend Hayley Oakes was also charged with three counts of assault after repeatedly attacking the girl and her two friends, aiming a punch at one of them but?missing and hitting a door frame instead.

The pair, who denied all the charges, turned up two hours late for their trial at Guildford Magistrates’ Court, which went ahead without them as a result.

The court heard that 33-year-old Wilson, from Woodbridge Road in Guildford, had gone outside Diva’s bar on June 16 shortly before midnight, followed by Oakes.

He threw up in the street a little distance away from three girls who were smoking outside the bar, who then made a joke about him not being sick near them.

Gemma Payne, who was one of the three, said: “It wasn’t myself that made the comment but it was ‘if you are going to be sick, can you do it elsewhere’.

“It was quite light-hearted because we had seen them through the night.”

The court heard that Wilson then stood up, approached Hannah Yeo and threw up down her top.

Miss Payne said that she and her friend Emma Thompson then started protesting, more in shock than anger, telling the court: "It’s not an everyday occurrence.

“I think he was half shouting back but he seemed quite dazed, but I don’t think he thought he had done anything wrong.

"He didn’t show any remorse, he seemed to find the whole thing quite funny.”

Bottle

She said that Oakes, of Epsom Road in Guildford, but who has recently moved to Cobbett Road in Whitton, Middlesex, started “making threats and goading them”, and pushed Miss Thompson before grabbing her hair and swinging her around.

Miss Payne said: “I grabbed onto the back of the female’s hair and tried to push her away.

“I was screaming at her to get off her. Once I managed to get the female off Emma, she punched me back. My ears were ringing, I got slightly blurred vision and there was a red mark on my face for the remainder of the night.

“She seemed to be turning her attention from me to Emma and attacked her. She kept latching onto her hair.”

The court heard that Miss Payne’s boyfriend then stepped in to try to calm the situation, while Wilson handed Oakes a bottle of alcohol he was holding while he talked to each of the girls.

Miss Payne said: “He turned to the female to hold it while he sorted us, she poured the drink out and held it by the neck and brandished it towards us.

“She kept miming hitting it and pointing it towards us as though showing us what would happen next.”

The police then arrived, and Miss Payne told the court she thought the situation would calm down at this point.

“Some people took us to the kebab shop next door to calm us down,” she said.

“I turned round to see what was going on and I saw the female trying to lunge at Hannah while a policeman was talking to her.”

Late

According to a police officer at the scene, Oakes ran at Miss Yeo and swung a clenched fist aimed at her face, but she missed and connected with the shop's door frame instead.

Oakes was then wrestled to the floor by?police,?but she?continued to hurl verbal abuse at the girls?as she and Wilson were being arrested.

Just before the magistrates were about to sentence Wilson and Oakes in their absence, the pair turned up, blaming?a babysitter not arriving on time for their lateness.

Magistrates’ chairman Mike Portlock asked the couple: “We know that both of your solicitors tried to get in touch with you this morning, and all they got was a voicemail system.

“Don’t you think that as you were due here, you should have at least let the court know you were going to be late?”

Wilson replied: “We are here now, aren’t we?”

Mr Portlock told Oakes and Wilson, who have children aged one and two together, that they had been found guilty of all the offences.

He also told them that they were being charged with a further offence of failing to appear at magistrates’ court because of their lateness, which they both pleaded not guilty to.

Wilson argued: “I want my solicitor here. I want a trial.”

Mr Portlock warned the pair that they were very close to being in contempt of the court if they continued to argue.

The pair will now be sentenced on November 19 after?the hearing?was adjourned.

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