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By Lisa Hamilton
Three men have been charged and remanded to prison for the murder of West Coast Berbice (WCB) teens, Isaiah and Joel Henry.
20-year-old Akash ‘Monkey’ Singh, who confessed to the crime incriminating two other men, received separate charges for the murder of the teens. Singh is from Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo.
Meanwhile, 34-year-old Anil Sancharra aka ‘Dan Pole’ and ‘Rasta’ and 30-year-old, Vinod ‘Magga’ Gopaul were charged jointly with the murder of the two boys.
Sancharra is a fisherman from D’Edward Village, WCB and Gopaul, a labourer from Yakusari, Black Bush Polder.
The men were not required to plea to the indictable charges.
The charges state that the men (each), being in the company of others, between September 5-6 2020, at Cotton Tree backdam WCB, in the West Berbice Magisterial District, county of Berbice, murdered Isaiah and Joel Henry.
They appeared before Magistrate Peter Hugh at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on Friday and are expected to appear at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court on February 2, 2021.
While at the Court, Sancharra and Gopaul were heard pleading innocence. Gopaul, in particular, claimed that he had never crossed the Berbice Bridge to Cotton Tree and had lived in Black Bush Polder all his life.
“I never had no knowledge and I never passed Berbice Bridge, since a youth man I lived Black Bush Polder,” he shouted to the media as he was transported to the Court’s holding bay.
While on the inside, he reached up to the metal mesh at the top of the bolted door and continued shouting his innocence.
“I never passed Berbice Bridge I swear pon me life, I swear pon me mother life…they victimized me, my constitutional rights as Guyanese citizen…sorry I have no knowledge about that murder sir!” he screamed.
On Thursday, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) advised that the trio be charged with the murders of the Henry boys which occurred between September 5 and 6, 2020.
The teen cousins, Isaiah, 16, and Joel, 18 were found mutilated in the Cotton Tree Backdam, West Coast Berbice (WCB) 24 hours after they left their homes to pick coconuts.
The murder of the cousins resulted in several fiery protests on the WCB as family, friends and villagers demanded Justice.
The Guyana Police Force has been under tremendous pressure to bring the perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice.
