Senior Reporter
A Special Reserve Police (SRP) officer and a security guard have been freed of charges stemming from the alleged kidnapping, rape and attempted murder of an 18-year-old Venezuelan national in 2020.
SRP officer Akini Rodriguez, 26, of Dibe, Long Circular, St James, and Aaron Ramkisoon, 20, of Waterhole, Cocorite, were discharged by High Court Master Kimitria Gray at the conclusion of their sufficiency hearing earlier this month.
Master Gray ruled that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had presented insufficient evidence to warrant the matter proceeding to trial before a High Court judge and jury or by judge alone.
Based on that ruling, the two men were discharged and freed of the charges.
The case arose from a report made by the Venezuelan national in August 2020.
The woman, who was 18 at the time and living in Siparia, alleged that she boarded a vehicle she believed to be a taxi in Debe and asked to be taken to San Fernando.
She claimed that instead she was driven to a secluded location, where she was sexually assaulted by the driver and a passenger.
According to her report, after the attack the men threw her from the vehicle along the M2 Ring Road in Debe.
She was later assisted by passing motorists and taken to the San Fernando General Hospital for medical treatment.
Rodriguez and Ramkisoon were jointly charged with attempted murder, rape and kidnapping. Both men denied the allegations.
They were initially denied bail but were subsequently granted bail as the matter progressed before the courts.
