Frustrated by the slow pace of the preliminary inquiry into the murder of six-year-old schoolgirl Keyana Cumberbatch, an Arima magistrate yesterday ordered 11 homicide detectives to appear in court to explain their delay in filing their witness statements.Senior Magistrate Indrani Cedeno issued the summons to the police at a hearing of the case in the Arima First Court, which took place almost ten months after the child's stepfather Dwayne Lewis was charged for her murder.
During yesterday's hearing, State prosecutor Indira Chinebas disclosed four statements from the police as well as 171 crime scene photographs to Lewis's lawyer Fareed Ali.The photographs are of various rooms and objects in Cumberbatch's apartment at Building Four, Maloney Gardens, D'abadie, including the shipping barrel in which her body was found hidden. Some of the photographs also showed the child's decomposing body moments after it was discovered by detectives probing her disappearance.
Chinebas, who had previously disclosed three statements Lewis had given to investigators after his arrest, said there were 15 statements from the 11 officers which were still outstanding. However, she could not say when the statements would be prepared, filed and disclosed.
Not satisfied by the delay, Cedeno said she would issue the summons to the officers, who would be required to attend court on October 1 to give their explantations.Cumberbatch, a student of the St Barbara's Spiritual Shouter Baptist Primary School, went missing on November 25 last year, while walking with her siblings to her grandmother's house, located a short distance from her apartment.
Lewis, a 28-year-old security guard, was arrested the same day. Three days later her body was discovered in the barrel, which served as a makeshift television stand. An autopsy showed the child died from blunt force trauma to her head and was sexually assaulted.While being interrogated by police, Lewis suffered a severe asthma attack and had to be hospitalised.
When he eventually appeared in court on December 10 last year, Lewis was sent to St Ann's Psychiatric Hospital for a month for a psychiatric evaluation. The results of the evaluation showed he was not suffering from any mental diseases and Lewis was sent to the Remand Yard facility at the Golden Grove State Prison.Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo is also prosecuting the case.