BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FURTHER investigations into the incident that led to the arrest and subsequent charge of the 10-year-old Cayon schoolboy revealed that he was allegedly beaten by the 20-year-old man he allegedly chased with a machete.
In an exclusive interview with the boy’s mother, she told SKNVibes that her son was charged with being armed with an offensive weapon and appeared before the court on Monday (Oct. 26). She also stated that his bail was revoked for the April 3, 2009 alleged murder of 14-year-old Bejay Dore, who died as a result of a stabbing incident in the vicinity of Maynard’s Park in Cayon.
This media house spoke with the Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Vaughan Henderson, who confirmed that the boy’s bail was revoked and he was remanded following this latest incident; but he did not provide any details as to where the boy is being held. However, a close family member said he was placed in a cell at a certain police station.
The family member further said that despite pleas by and warnings from the boy’s mother concerning him being placed in an enclosed area [such as a cell] due his asthmatic condition, the lad fell ill last evening and is currently warded at the Joseph N France General Hospital.
Inspector Henderson also informed that the 20-year-old man, Vaughn Mitcham, also of Cayon, was charged with battery and placed on bail.
In her explanation of what transpired on Sunday, October 25, the mother said her son is a dog lover and it has been over three weeks since the puppy came into her parent’s unfenced yard and was being fed and cared for by the lad, who also has two other dogs.
“My son is living with his grandparents in an unfenced yard. He has a big dog and a puppy. About three weeks ago, a puppy came into the yard and was playing with the other puppy and the big dog. We do not know where it came from, but it remained there and was fed and cared for by my son. However, on Sunday, when my son took the two puppies and the dog for a walk on an empty lot just behind my mother’s house, a boy about 14 or 15 years old approached and told him that Vaughn wanted to see him. My son was unaware that the boy was Vaughn’s brother…he thought the boy was Vaughn’s friend.
“My son stood up with the dogs and Vaughn came across and told him that the puppy was his. My son told him, ‘Look how long this puppy down there. Your friend does pass here on a bike everyday and he does see the puppy. The puppy does run after he an all. How come alyou aint seh is youall puppy all de time…I aint giving it.’ He took up the puppy and held it close to his chest. Vaughn was fighting to take away the puppy and after my son did not give it up, he picked up a piece of board and started beating him with it. My son started screaming out ‘Mama, Mama’, and my mother looked outside and saw Vaughn beating him. She ran outside, stood between the two of them and asked, ‘What you hitting the boy for? If the puppy is yours why didn’t you come and make a complaint?’
“Still in his rage, Vaughn pushed my mother out of the way and started banging my son again. So my mother got back between them and was attempting to shield my son when Vaughn hit her with the board and it cut her between the thumb and index finger of her left hand,” she added.
The woman said that on seeing his grandmother hurt, her son ran around her, pushed Vaughn and said, “Boy wah you hitting me mother for. Nobody aint do you nothing and the puppy aint even yours.”
“He started hitting my son again and my son picked up a stone, threw it and it hit Vaughn. He advanced to my son and started to bang him again with the board. So my son ran into the yard and picked up the machete that mummy was earlier cutting down the bushes with. But by the time he returned to the empty lot, Vaughn had already picked up the puppy and headed away from the empty lot. Up to now Vaughn didn’t see my son with the machete; it’s the neighbours who saw him with it and called the police.”
The woman said that on her son’s return to the empty lot, his grandmother held him, took away the machete and told him that Vaughn had already left with the puppy and he should forget about it.
“While my mother was taking my son home, the neighbours called the police and told them that he and some other children had it out and he chased them with a machete. That is the report they gave to the police, who came with an attitude.”
The boy’s mother said that she is highly perturbed over the manner in which the Officer-in-Charge of the Cayon Police Station went about investigating the incident and is calling on the High Command to step in.
“He never took a statement from my mother or my son. When he arrived on the scene, he saw my mother with the machete in one hand and holding my son in the other. He said, ‘Come, come, bring him, ah gon charge him.’ I turned to him and said that you just gon run come because of a phone call and take the boy to the police station without wanting to know what happened? He turned to me and said, ‘Stop you noise, stop you noise, if you continue mekking any noise ah gon arrest you.’
“I asked him if he was going to arrest me because I was talking. At this time, he had Vaughn standing up right there and he was also talking, but the officer did not rebuke him. He then told the two other officers who were there to take my son to the police station. On hearing that, I immediately said what happen to the other party involved in the incident. He turned to Vaughn and said, ‘You go ahead, we gon investigate the matter and get back to you.’ I said, ‘Hell no. You must be crazy. This man just beat my child and you are telling him to go ahead. If it’s anything you are supposed to take the two of them to the police station.’ He then held Vaughn and told him to wait. He then sent the police car with my son and they returned for Vaughn.”
The woman said that on arrival at the Cayon Police Station, Vaughn denied hitting her son and the Officer-in-Charge seemed to believe what he was saying. “However,” she said, “it was the other officer who checked my son and saw the welts on his body and they took him to the hospital in Molineux, where he was given an injection and some tablets.”
She claimed that another close relative, who was also at the station, asked the Officer-in-Charge if she could take pictures of the welts on the child’s body.
“He said when they would have returned from the hospital she could take the pictures. But on their return we could not get the pictures because the Officer-in-Charge had already left the station and he did not leave any instructions with the other officers.”
The juvenile’s mother produced a copy of the medical report, which states that there were bruises on his right hand and leg, left side of neck and multiple dermal contusions on the left side of his neck.
She further explained that her father saw Vaughn with the puppy and when he enquired where he was heading, someone told him that they saw him “going by a fellow name Apple”.
“So my father went up there, called Apple and asked him who the puppy belongs to. The fellow said it’s my puppy and my father told him what Vaughn did. The fellow said he can’t believe Vaughn bang up my son and he knows that the puppy does not belong to him. The fellow also said that Vaughn told him that he just went up by my son, pick up the puppy and brought it to him. He also told my father that someone informed him that Vaughn bang up my son, but Vaughn said he had only given him one lash, which contradicts what he later told the police.”
The mother also stated that Apple told her father that he did not believe her son stole the puppy because he never had it chained but freely running in his yard. Therefore, the puppy might have followed the bigger dogs and went into the area where her son resides.
In addition to what the owner of the puppy said, the mother pointed out that because of the conditions ordered by the court, which her son obeys, “he cannot venture past a certain distance away from his home. The only time he is allowed to do so is when the probation officer has to take him for counselling”.
The boy’s mother also claimed that the neighbours who had summoned the police are in the habit of provoking her son, and this behaviour stemmed from the April 3, 2009 incident in Maynard’s Park.
She claimed that in the past, the same neighbours had made numerous false reports concerning her son. “On one occasion,” she explained, “my son was at home, and when he went on the landing he jumped because a police officer was out in front. And when my father went to the back of the house he saw another officer. The one in front asked my son, ‘Who and you home?’ My son said, ‘Dada in there.’ So my father came out and asked what the reason was for them being on his premises. The officers told him that someone made a report that the child was busing somebody, telling them that he killed already and he is going to kill again. The mother of the child that died is also among the people who are provoking my son. I have already made a complaint to Ms. Jenkins, the magistrate, but she told me that she cannot tell the woman where to go and where she cannot go. My son is traumatised and even though he is being counselled, on many occasions we would see him in a withdrawn state crying.”
The woman said that her son’s future seems bleak because of the constant torment and harassment. She also said that while there is much regret within her family over the cause of Bejay Dore’s death, she is praying for the day to arrive when the truth of the incident would be heard in court.
She noted that her son is now 11 years old and promised to provide SKNVibes a detailed interview of what transpired on April 3, 2009 at Maynard’s Park and its subsequent repercussions.
