A Diego Mar­tin man who at­tempt­ed to harm him­self twice whilst in po­lice cus­tody over the week­end re­mained un­der po­lice guard at hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day.

Po­lice said the 45-year-old man of Cuth­bert Cir­cu­lar, Four Roads, was held on Ju­ly 25 af­ter he was found with­in an en­closed premis­es.

He was lat­er placed in a cell with oth­er pris­on­ers at the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion around 10 pm on Fri­day.

When of­fi­cers heard a loud noise from the cells, they found the sus­pect strik­ing his head on the cell bars, caus­ing him to bleed.

Of­fi­cers re­strained the pris­on­er to pre­vent more self-harm and called Emer­gency Health Ser­vices (EHS), who took him to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (PoS­GH), where he was treat­ed for mi­nor head in­juries and dis­charged.

Up­on his re­turn to the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion, the pris­on­er was placed in a cell by him­self, where he was mon­i­tored via sur­veil­lance cam­eras and checked phys­i­cal­ly every half hour.

How­ev­er, around 8.30 am on Sat­ur­day dur­ing a rou­tine check, the pris­on­er was seen scratch­ing him­self un­der the neck, which ap­peared to be bleed­ing. Po­lice rushed him back to the PoS­GH, where he was treat­ed and ward­ed. Po­lice said yes­ter­day the pris­on­er was in a sta­ble and lu­cid con­di­tion, pend­ing eval­u­a­tion by an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) spe­cial­ist and pos­si­ble psy­chi­atric as­sess­ment for trans­fer to the St Ann’s Psy­chi­atric Hos­pi­tal.

Se­nior of­fi­cials dis­missed claims that the pris­on­er’s throat had been slit and that he had been as­sault­ed by oth­er pris­on­ers while in cus­tody at the sta­tion. —An­na-Lisa Paul