A/HRC/16/52/Add.3
detainees when they were shouting for them. A fat police officer had slapped him in the
face once when he was shouting to be taken to the toilet. In addition, the officer raised his
baton and threatened to beat him. He did not eat meat but the officers kept bringing him
meat. They told him that he had to eat the food before he could receive visits. Food was
provided three times per day. At 4 a.m. each day the detainees had to get up to take a
shower. In general, he felt that the officers in Central Police Station did not treat the
detainees correctly. He had to share a cell with a mentally unstable elderly man for about
three weeks. He had shared a cell with two adult males in Central Police Station. His family
had not been informed that he had been transferred from Port Royal to Central Police
Station. His next court hearing was scheduled for 3 March; his parents and lawyer usually
went with him to court. During the interview, he pointed out a rat that was running along
the corridor.
62.
Steve Moran, aged 39, had been arrested on 3 November 2009 in the street in
Crossroads by three police officers, who handcuffed him and took him to Crossroads Police
Station, where he spent two hours. Later he was transferred to Central Police Station, where
he had spent the last four months. A female police officer had questioned him and he had
talked to a lawyer. He was badly treated in Central Police Station. The food and the tea
provided were of very poor quality. He could receive visits two times per week. His family
took food for him, but this was often restricted by the police. He was locked down all day
and had to shout if he needed to use the bathroom. The officers only went to the cells when
they were in the right mood, even if a detainee was sick. The night before the visit, one
detainee fell sick but the officers let him wait for 30 minutes. He was lying on the floor and
crying of pain. Sometimes the detainees had to beg the officers for three to four days in
order to be taken to a doctor. Five months before, a former cellmate had been beaten on the
eye by the officers. Poor people were not respected by the officers. He was allowed out of
the cell for five minutes at 5 a.m. in the morning in order to have a shower and to get
breakfast. The detainees were then locked in again until the evening, when they had got
their dinner. The cells were infested with flees and rats and the whole place smelled very
bad because the detainees were forced to urinate in plastic bottles. There was a special
separation cell on each floor where detainees could be locked in for one or two days when
they got in a fight.
Hunt’s Bay Police Station
Visited on 15 February 2010
General information
63.
The Special Rapporteur was received by Superintendent Hewitt Delroy, Inspector
Aaron Fletcher, Officer Carl Malcolm (Deputy Superintendant in charge of crime), Custody
Officer Dalton Leslie and Inspector Joeff Scott (Ms).
64.
The lock-ups had been closed in early December for renovation. According to
Inspector Fletcher, reconstruction was needed because the detainees needed better
treatment. He added that no interrogations took place at Hunt’s Bay, and once the
detainees’ identity was verified, they were taken to other police stations.
65.
Most of the officers, above all Superintendent Hewitt Delroy, were very obstructive,
uncooperative, aggressive, and openly threatened the Special Rapporteur’s team during the
visit. Although the lock-up was not operative, the Special Rapporteur encountered a man in
the “Interview Room” who was apparently very scared. According to the officers, he had
been detained and taken to the police station by a mobile police brigade, but there were no
record about who had taken him and who had received him. Since the lock-up was out of
operation, there was no custody register book. The Special Rapporteur’s overall impression
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