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Four charges are expected to be laid against Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne over this weekend for committing breaches of the Sexual Offences Act and for resisting arrest following his detention on Thursday by officers of the Port-of-Spain CID.

The charge warrants were secured yesterday by officers of the Port-of-Spain CID under the supervision of ASP Ajith Persad at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates' Court. They were reportedly signed by a Justice of the Peace.

Three of the charges are for committing breaches of Section 32(2) of the Sexual Offences Act in relation to the broadcast of the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl on his reality TV crime show last October.

The law states: "A person who publishes or broadcasts any matter, contrary to subsection one, is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of $25,000 and to imprisonment for five years."

Summonses were also reportedly drafted and expected to be executed against TV 6, which broadcasts Alleyne's show, and its representatives under the Sexual Offences Act and the Telecommunications Act. While up to late yesterday it could not be confirmed, some police sources said that as many as nine summonses were drafted.

It was said that the warrants against Alleyne will be executed as soon as he is discharged from the hospital and he would most likely appear before a Port-of-Spain magistrate on Monday.

These documents were secured even as Alleyne was warded under police guard at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC), Mt Hope where he was transferred to yesterday morning from Port-of-Spain-General Hospital.

Alleyne was held at about 8 pm, on Thursday, at Express House (the headquarters of the Caribbean Communications Network (CCN) media house) Independence Square, Port-of-Spain, by a party of police officers led by ASP Persad.

Following his detention, he was taken to the Port-of-Spain CID, St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain. However, he complained of feeling unwell explaining that, among other things, he was suffering from chest pains. He was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he was kept overnight for observation. He was subsequently transferred to the EWMSC at about 11 am yesterday for further observation.

Speaking with Newsday yesterday, Alleyne's attorney Om Lalla described the manner in which his client had been detained as a "travesty to justice."

"The police, in their efforts to secure Mr Alleyne, badly managed a very straightforward situation. I believe in the due process of the law, and there was a way to handle yesterday's (Thursday) events in a manageable way in order to maintain the confidence of the public. They did not opt to do this. Instead, they publicly came after a person over a matter which is summary in nature and where a summons could have been issued, and we all saw what happened," Lalla said.

The attorney explained that when the police first arrived at Express House, he went to inquire if it was possible for Alleyne to surrender himself at the CID building. However, he was informed in "no uncertain terms" that the instructions of the officers were to arrest Alleyne.

"When we came down, Ian (Alleyne) was then handcuffed and while they held him, he was asking what he was being arrested for which he is entitled to by law to find out," Lalla recalled. However, the police yesterday said they gave Alleyne time to surrender earlier Thursday, but he failed to comply with the requests of the investigators. Newsday was informed that Alleyne had been contacted and asked to report to the CID building at about midday on Thursday for an interview. However, the talk show host did not comply with the request.

A party of officers then went to Alleyne's listed address in Couva, and discovered he was not home. Inquiries were made, and the officers were informed that Alleyne also stayed at another residence in Couva which he was renting. The officers also paid a visit to this location, but Alleyne was not there either. When further calls to his cellular phone went unanswered, a decision was made to go to Express House during the 6 pm broadcast of Alleyne's programme as it was the only time they were certain of his whereabouts.

Speaking at the daily press briefing yesterday at the Police Administration Building, Sackville Street, Port-of-Spain, Deputy Police Commissioner Mervyn Richardson reiterated the police's position.

He said following failure to reach Alleyne for two days, the investigating officers were briefed again and were advised by Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard to seek to an interview with Alleyne and it was only then that the decision was made to visit the CCN compound.

"I want to place on the record, you may have been misled into thinking that there were a number of officers. Six officers went last night (Thursday). Three officers alone entered the compound of CCN. They remained there for 45 minutes while Mr Alleyne's show was in progress. At the end of the show, they called again and asked for Mr Alleyne to make himself available for the interview and he did not. On the basis of him not wanting to give up himself willingly to be interviewed, the officers then had to take Mr Alleyne and bring him to police headquarters," Richardson said. Alleyne was taken to CID, not the police headquarters.

Richardson said he was convinced that all appropriate protocols had been observed.

"The officers who went there were not on a frolic of their own. They went there under the advice of the DPP and following proper protocol. There was no abuse of process and it was there for everyone to see, the officers did not abuse their powers at all.

They tried everything. They were very, very sympathetic, they were very cooperative, they called on many occasions, they stood there (Thursday) in the rain, hoping that this thing would not have happened.

This could have been dealt with in a very amicable way, had there been some degree of cooperation. As a matter of fact, I intervened and asked, could you please cooperate with the officers to bring that saga that was taking place, to an end. But persons chose otherwise," Richardson explained.

The Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago declined to comment on the arrest of Alleyne stating that it would be "inappropriate" to do so as the matter was the subject of a police investigation.

from newsday.co.tt http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,158850.html


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