The families of the Henry cousins who were slaughtered aback Cotton Tree Village, West Coast Berbice on Sunday has denied telling President Irfaan Ali that the boys’ deaths were gang-related.
“It has come to the attention of the families of Joel and Isaiah Henry that some media outlets have attributed to them and members of their families, statements alleged to have been made to the President that the deaths of Joel and Isaiah were gang related. These statements are completely false,” the families said through their lawyer, Nigel Hughes.
“On the eve of the funerals of Joel and Isiah Henry to attempt of malign their characters for whatever reason is beyond obnoxious and grossly offensive to the Henry family in their moment of great loss and inconsolable grief,” Hughes added
He said the Henry family hopes that they will be permitted to inter the mutilated remains of their family members with the appropriate degree of dignity and solemnity “which these young men deserve without the necessity of having their characters brutally assaulted in death.”
Autopsies of of the bodies of the two Henry cousins, revealed that the teens were brutally tortured before they died.
Speaking with media outside the Memorial Gardens in the La Repentir Cemetery, where the post-mortems were conducted by Dr Nehaul Singh, Hughes had described the particulars as ‘pretty nasty’.
He said that Joel received 18 wounds across his body, seven to eight chops to head, and defensive wounds in both palms from a sharp object. It was concluded from those injuries, the 19-year-old fell to the ground, then he received a chop to his back that severed his spine. That chop was 14 inches x 3 and 6 inches deep.
There was also evidence that he bit his tongue, and his throat slit.
In relation to 16-year-old, his spine was also severed. His wound was 14 inches long, 4 inches wide and 6 inches deep. Isaiah received several chops to his head, and his throat too was slit, almost to sever his head from his neck.
