Prominent Attorney – at – Law, Nigel Hughes says the then Crime Chief, Leon Trim, granted permission for him remove a surveillance tape from a murder scene in 2003.
During his appearance on the radio programme, Hard Talk aired on 90.1 Love FM, Hughes, who is now the Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), emphasized that he did not remove the tape with any ulterior motive in mind.
Businessman, Brian Hamilton, who is a relative of Hughes, was shot and killed during a robbery at his gas station in Buxton, East Coast Demerara in 2003. Then President, Bharrat Jagdeo and by extension the People’s Progressive Party had accused Hughes of tampering with evidence.
Hughes explained that at the time, he was acting in the capacity as a relative of the Hamiltons and at the request of the father of the slain businessman, Oscar Hamilton, he accompanied him to the gas station to retrieve the footage, which he said was returned to the police eventually.
“I went and if you have ever seen, as we say in Guyana, a grown man broken, that’s what Mr. Hamilton was…he said Nigel, they’ve killed my son. I want to go to the gas station. The police have been calling me asking me to come to take out the surveillance tape,” the Attorney explained.
He clarified that Mr Hamilton did not want to go to the scene by himself and when they both arrived, the police had already completed their investigation.
“Mr Hamilton entered the office. The police officer said Mr. Hamilton, this is the tape. Mr Hamilton said I want to see who killed my son, let me keep this tape and I will get it back to you.”
Hughes said the officer at the scene said he could not make that decision and asked him to call the Crime Chief,
“I called Mr Trim and I said look, this is the situation. Everybody, before we got there knew who shot Brian. The person use to walk into the gas station regularly to buy phone cards…everyone knew, so the tape was not important…Mr Trim said sure you can remove the tape, once you copy it and bring it back to us,” Hughes explained.
Hughes said he later visited the Police Headquarters to return the tape but that Trim was not there and he did not want to leave it with the guard. He returned a Monday morning and handed the tape over to the Crime Chief himself.
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