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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Suspect behind bars on murder charge

by

20160731

No one has been ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with the se­ries of ex­plo­sions in Port-of-Spain and en­vi­rons near­ly 11 years ago, which left one woman, Yvonne McIvor, now 76, of Ari­ma, with­out a leg and loss of hear­ing in her left ear, while sev­er­al oth­er peo­ple suf­fered mi­nor in­juries.

The first bomb which was placed in a met­al garbage can on the side­walk ex­plod­ed on Ju­ly 11, 2005. It was the first of a se­ries of bomb­ings that took place in the city be­tween Ju­ly and Oc­to­ber 2005.

Patrick Man­ning, the then prime min­is­ter, while in Par­lia­ment, had de­scribed the man be­hind the bomb­ings as "Mr Big." How­ev­er, no one ever found out who was "Mr Big," since no one was ar­rest­ed or charged in con­nec­tion with the mat­ter.

But ac­cord­ing to prison sources, a sus­pect who was want­ed in con­nec­tion with that crime is now be­hind bars on a mur­der charge. Pris­ons of­fi­cers said the sus­pect has con­fessed to peo­ple in jail that he was be­hind the ex­plo­sions that caused in­jury and pan­ic in down­town Port-of-Spain and St James. Of­fi­cers said the ac­cused is "an ex­pert in de­vices."

Ques­tioned why they had not tak­en the in­for­ma­tion to the po­lice, pris­ons of­fi­cers said it was the po­lice's du­ty to do their job and in­ves­ti­gate the crime.

When asked if it was pos­si­ble that there are in­mates who com­mit­ted oth­er crimes that they were not charged for, sec­re­tary of the Pris­ons Of­fi­cers' As­so­ci­a­tion Ger­ard Gor­don said: "Of course, they usu­al­ly send for the sus­pects for trac­ing and a lot are ca­reer crim­i­nals mean­ing it is not the first time they have com­mit­ted a crime. We are not the po­lice in in­ves­ti­gat­ing crime. That is their job. We hold peo­ple on war­rants that come from the court."

When con­tact­ed, As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er Glenn Hack­ett did not com­ment on oth­er crimes that in­mates had com­mit­ted and were not charged for. Ques­tioned about the ex­plo­sions that oc­curred years ago, he said he be­lieved it was in­ves­ti­gat­ed by an of­fi­cer who has been "re­tired for sev­er­al years and would look in­to it."

For­mer deputy com­mis­sion­er Gilbert Reyes, who is now re­tired, was in­ves­ti­gat­ing the bomb­ings. Reyes said he be­lieved that the case did not yield any re­sults. He said he did not know what has tak­en place with the in­ves­ti­ga­tion af­ter his re­tire­ment.

Yvonne McIvor...

Still wait­ing for jus­tice

Mean­while, McIvor, a can­cer sur­vivor who was walk­ing past Maraj Jew­ellers on Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain, on her way to the Ra­dio­ther­a­py Cen­tre in St James for treat­ment when the de­vice in the dust­bin ex­plod­ed, is still wait­ing for jus­tice.

While no one has been ar­rest­ed for the crime which left peo­ple wound­ed and dev­as­tat­ed, McIvor was hap­py to hear that the man be­hind it was at least in jail for an­oth­er crime. "If it is that he is be­hind bars it will be so com­fort­ing to know the per­son who has done that is ac­tu­al­ly pay­ing for some­thing or maybe an­oth­er charge or so, and maybe it is a good thing," she said.

McIvor said, how­ev­er, the po­lice need­ed to be more dili­gent while car­ry­ing out their du­ties.

McIvor said she has for­giv­en the per­son/peo­ple who al­most de­stroyed her life, but it does not mean that they should not pay for the crime they had com­mit­ted. "I don't want any mal­ice in me or to har­bour any hate, I don't want to...you have to love your neigh­bour as your­self and dis­re­gard any wrong thing that hap­pened, some­times we say things we don't mean. I try not to think about it and what has hap­pened to my­self."

Re­call­ing the grenade re­cov­ered in Car­li Bay, Cou­va, on May 31, af­ter a man car­ry­ing a knap­sack fled from po­lice, McIvor said there might have been some sin­is­ter plot that could have caused "some­body to not on­ly lose their legs and lose their hear­ing, but lose their life."

McIvor has emerged from the pain and suf­fer­ing over the years to be an in­spi­ra­tion to oth­er peo­ple. "Many peo­ple told me that (I am an in­spi­ra­tion). The good­ness of God has helped me." McIvor said she and her fam­i­ly find the time to cel­e­brate birth­days and oth­er small oc­ca­sions by shar­ing ice-cream and cake, and this helps to make life worth liv­ing.


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