Cop: I was pressured into charging mother
By Anika Gumbs-Sandiford
POLICE acted wrongfully when 19-year-old Anita Annamunthodo was arrested and slapped with six counts of wilful neglect of her murdered four-year-old daughter Emily Amy Annamunthodo.
In his report to senior officers on April 19, PC Marcel Hamilton, complainant in the matter, admitted that his judgment was flawed when he laid the charges.
Hamilton, a policeman for the past seven years, stated that he laid the charges unwillingly, because he felt he could not challenge the instructions of a senior homicide officer.
Admitting that he never attended any of the 34 court hearings, Hamilton apologised for his actions.
He said he did not shy away from his duty, but was unable to produce sufficient evidence for the court matter.
Hamilton stated that after the arrest of Annamunthodo’s common-law husband Marlon King, who has been committed to stand trial for the child’s murder, the senior police officer insisted that Annamunthodo should also be implicated in the circumstances surrounding the child’s death.
Hamilton said the senior policeman told him: “There is an outcry for Anita to be charged. It is in the public’s best interest.”
He claimed that the statement was again echoed in the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) south office after King’s arrest.
The discussion took place in the presence of the Deputy DPP Roger Gaspard.
The Deputy DPP warned the senior policeman that charges could not be laid unless there was substantial evidence.
‘It’s your case, handle it’
Full Article : guardian.co.tt
Please, please,please……Do not let this child’s death have been in vain. This is a case that clearly shows how we in the Carribean have failed our children. Far too often mothers look the other way as stepfathers, boyfriends, relatives, and acquaintances abuse, neglect, rape, or molest their children. For what reason? Fear of being alone, emotional, financial or physical reasons? Are children a pawn with which to barter? I want the legal system to try to put themselves in this child’s shoes the last few hours of her life…she was so brutally raped her anus was ruptured. For God’s sake, what will it take for people to understand that Mr. King needs to be made an example of? As an adult child who was victimized by her own father sexually I cannot begin to tell you how this adversely affected my life as it will for other boys and girls who survive their abuse, my mother stood by afraid to be alone and afraid of losing what little financial support he gave her. I no longer acknowledge either of them are alive nor do I care. I cried when reading her story and I now live 5000 miles from the islands. I have my own daughter and am overprotective as a result. Do not let this child have died for nothing. She deserves justice and dignity in her death. If you fail to provide this and prosecute those responsible, God help you.