Senior Reporter
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
A 23-year-old Venezuelan woman accused of abandoning her newborn baby was granted $60,000 bail with surety when she appeared before Master Kateisha Ambrose-Persadsingh in the Siparia Court yesterday.
The woman, who was unrepresented, was charged with cruelty to a child and wasteful deployment of police.
She was not called upon to enter pleas to the charges.
Prosecutor Sgt Sheldon Salazar appeared for the State.
The court transferred the matter to the Magistrates’ Court, where it was adjourned to October 5.
Acting Sgt Ferguson is the complainant in the matter.
The infant remains a patient at the Point Fortin Hospital.
The charges arise from an incident in which police alleged the woman made a false report after claiming she had found an abandoned newborn before investigators determined she was the child’s mother.
According to police, the woman arrived at the Oropouche Police Station on August 20 accompanied by a 47-year-old Trinidadian man.
She was carrying a newborn girl wrapped in a blanket and placed inside a black plastic bag.
The woman allegedly told officers that shortly after midday, she was walking along St Mary’s Road, near the South Oropouche Government Primary School, when she heard a baby crying. She claimed she found the newborn, with the umbilical cord still attached, inside a black plastic bag that had been placed in a cardboard box on the roadside.
She further reported that she took the baby to a nearby resident, who later accompanied her to the police station.
Officers subsequently took the newborn to the Point Fortin Area Hospital for medical attention, and the Children’s Authority was notified.
However, further investigations reportedly led police to conclude that the child was the woman’s baby, resulting in the charges against her.
