An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Days af­ter a High Court judge or­dered the re­lease of at­tor­ney Shel­don Mitchell, who had been de­tained for al­leged­ly har­bour­ing the man sus­pect­ed of the bru­tal mur­der of Can­dace Hon­ore, in­ves­ti­ga­tors have charged him with per­vert­ing the course of jus­tice.

The di­rec­tive was hand­ed down by the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP), Roger Gas­pard, SC, yes­ter­day, even as the fu­ner­al of the 22-year-old was tak­ing place.

The 50-year-old at­tor­ney, who op­er­ates out of San­gre Grande, was re­port­ed­ly re-ar­rest­ed by of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau’s In­tel­li­gence Team, sup­port­ed by mem­bers of the East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force.

The op­er­a­tion was spear­head­ed by Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP), In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Suzette Mar­tin, along­side Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Sean Dhilpaul, and per­son­nel from the East­ern Di­vi­sion, Homi­cide Sup­port Team and In­tel­li­gence Unit.

The charge stems from the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Hon­ore’s killing, af­ter her dis­mem­bered body was dis­cov­ered stuffed in­to a suit­case which had been tossed in­to a pond along Oropouche Road, Va­len­cia, on Ju­ly 17.

The as­pir­ing nurse was re­port­ed miss­ing on Ju­ly 9.

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro said, “No one is above the law, be it at­tor­neys, po­lice of­fi­cers, or pub­lic of­fi­cials.”

Even as he as­sured that the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice re­mained res­olute in its du­ty to up­hold jus­tice with im­par­tial­i­ty and pro­fes­sion­al­ism, he cau­tioned, “While the de­ci­sion to lay this charge re­flects care­ful le­gal guid­ance and op­er­a­tional dili­gence, it is vi­tal to em­pha­sise the ac­cused pre­sump­tion of in­no­cence un­til proven guilty in a court of law. This de­vel­op­ment marks an in­ves­ti­ga­to­ry mile­stone, not a con­clu­sion.”

Dur­ing Hon­ore’s fu­ner­al ser­vice, which was held at Wight’s Fu­ner­al Chapel, To­co Road, San­gre Grande, her fa­ther, Michael Hon­ore, told griev­ing rel­a­tives and friends that par­ents can on­ly do so much to pro­tect their chil­dren, and what hap­pens be­yond that is in God’s hands.

He said, “It’s not for points or any­thing, but I ap­pre­ci­ate God in charge, and God is the cre­ator. But it’s hard to know this is the re­sult at the end of the day as much as it is.

“As a fa­ther, God is love. To all fa­thers and moth­ers. It’s not about girl chil­dren and boy chil­dren be­cause a boy and a girl were in­volved. But we can on­ly try, up to how much we can try.”

The griev­ing fa­ther added, “We can on­ly say, Fa­ther Lord, on a morn­ing, guide us. Pro­tect us. Pro­tect us to the fullest. We ap­pre­ci­ate what you have been do­ing for us so far un­der your pro­tec­tion and guid­ance, and that’s it. We put every­thing in God’s hands.”