Voters go to the polls in a matter of hours, but the national consciousness of the people is also focusing on the violent deaths of children. Around midday today, the Leader of the Opposition, John Briceño gave a press conference on the alarming situation of gun violence. In the city, in the past two days; […]
Briceño’s youngest son is fourteen; he says he fully understands the pain of the families who have lost their children and others to violence. And despite the doubling of boots on the ground, Briceño believes that the root causes of crime are the poor economy, unemployment and corruption in the highest levels of government. The […]
Crown prosecutors say they have insufficient evidence to try Mason Patnett in the attempted murder of Marvin Bull, who has been missing since 2014. They entered a motion of nolle prosequi today before Supreme Court Justice Adolph Lucas. Twenty-one year old Bull was the target when Patnett is alleged to have instigated the late Raheem […]
The Court of Appeal has been considering the appeal of the Crown against Aracely Cahueque since 2016. She is the former Corozal resident and former beauty queen accused of abetment of the murder of nineteen year old Raylene Dyer. Cahueque is now twenty-three years old and resides in Costa Rica, where she had been recently […]
Tonight, we have full coverage of the events leading to the death of a little girl from Maskall, who has rallied the nation against the despicable sexual abuse of children. And the latest word to our newsroom just before five this evening is that a post mortem has concluded. The results show that she died […]
Seventeen-month-old Allyssa Nunez passed on Sunday morning, but from Friday, twenty-one-year-old Everal Martinez of Maskall was in police custody on a charge of dangerous harm. That charge has been lifted and he is now facing four counts of sexually-related offenses. This morning, as Martinez was read his charges, the police barricaded the Magistrate’s Court for […]
The death of the Baby Alyssa has sparked outrage across the country, some impromptu and others organized protests have held since the weekend. This morning before Everal Martinez was brought for arraignment, Belizeans came out in front of the Magistrate Court to make a statement that abuse against children cannot be countenanced in any shape […]
Prior to being arraigned before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford, Everal Martinez was charged with deadly use of harm on Friday evening. The single count was presumably a holding charge, a temporary indictment to keep Martinez in custody until this morning when the more substantive charges were preferred. While there were many at the protest earlier […]
As outrage grows against the vile circumstances that led to the death of Alyssa, there is another case that police are investigating. A seven-year old schoolgirl was allegedly abused by a sixty-seven year old man who she called granddad. The incident happened about two weeks ago and came to light when the behaviour of the […]
Today police went on the south side looking for what’s reported to be remains of a baby buried in a yard. Reports had been circulating since Sunday that a mother had killed and buried her newborn at a yard on Antelope Street Extension. This morning, there was no confirmation on this report at the press […]
The widespread condemnation and presentation of solutions in the wake of the death of Baby Allyssa is mounting. Separate press releases were issued by the Belize City Council Child Advisory Board; Maya Leaders Alliance/Toledo Alcaldes Association; National Evangelical Association of Belize and the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, offering similar words of condemnation of […]
In 2013, extensive amendments to the Criminal Code of Belize were passed in respect of fully delineating potential offenses of sexual assault against both adults and children. Those laws were endorsed by Special Envoy for Women and Children Kim Simplis-Barrow and the National Committee for Families and Children among others. Today, the Special Envoy told […]
In the city, police presence is being felt as far more officers have been deployed to the streets following a recent flare of gun violence. Over the weekend, two persons were shot in separate incidents on Saturday. According to police, car dealer Raymond Wayne Davis was inside a vehicle with a female companion when a […]
That shooting was followed by another, hours later on Saturday night just after seven o’clock. According to police, Kearney Thompson was on Vernon Street when a lone gunman fired shots in his direction. Two of the bullets hit him and one slug was recovered from the scene. Inspector Wilfredo Ferrufino shares the details of the […]
Just before news time a small protest was held in front of the Queen Street Police Station by persons to condemn the rape of an infant. Police have just now charged for dangerous harm, the stepfather of the child, a twenty- one year old resident from Maskall who was left to care for the child […]
From the courts, two brothers are behind bars accused of the attempted murder of Francis Parham on Sunday evening on the George Price Highway. Twenty-two year old Shakeedi Baizar of Western Paradise and Akeem Humes, twenty-eight, of Belize City are also charged with use of deadly means of harm and dangerous harm on Parham. Senior […]
He was already out on bail for a serious offence of aggravated burglary and unlawful imprisonment. But today Nelson Henry was back in court charged with aggravated assault, this time of a police officer. Twenty-eight year old Henry was acquitted a month ago of a murder charge in the death of Edward Lord. Days later, […]
He was just granted bail on Thursday on a charge of murder for which he faces re-trial. But twenty-nine-year-old Orel Leslie is behind bars at the Central Prison at this hour, because Supreme Court Justice Denis Hanomansingh found that he had violated a condition of his bail grant. Leslie, among other things, was ordered to […]
We start the news tonight with a sickening report of the rape of a toddler. The seventeen-month old girl is clinging to life at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. The child’s twenty-one year old stepfather from the village of Maskall, Belize District allegedly raped the infant. Because of the sensitivity of the incident few details […]
Kirk Lamb has re-emerged to counter some of the accusations and questions raised by his former boss, Anthony “Boots” Martinez, on Wednesday. Today he told reporters that while he may have well signed “contracts” to build and repair houses for the Southside Poverty Alleviation Project as confirmed by the Ministry of Works, he never actually […]
The murder of Jermaine Carr on Neal’s Pen Road was preceded by two other shooting incidents in Belize City on Wednesday evening. The first incident involved well-known George Street figure Nicholi Rhys, who was grazed in the head by a bullet when a lone assailant fired on him. Rhys was lucky to have escaped with […]
The attempt on Rhys’ life prompted swift retribution by his affiliates across town shortly afterwards. Twenty-one-year-old Aaron Avilez was leaving from a barbershop on North Front Street around seven-thirty when he was assailed by a gunman on foot. The shooter reportedly walked up to him and let loose a volley of shots, injuring him to […]
A robber got away with ten thousand U.S. dollars on Wednesday evening after he held up a businesswoman in Belize City. Police say that the woman was heading home for the day when an armed man held her up in the Golden Bay parking lot. There are no surveillance cameras in the compound and while […]
There has been a recent trend of men accused of murder seeking bail. It was previously thought that murder, except in rare circumstances, was the one charge immune to bail, but there have been two recent successes, one of which later led to an acquittal. Twenty-five year old Tyrone Meighan of Banak Street and twenty-nine […]
The open debate on the taking of photographs by officers conducting stop and search exercises continue in the public domain, as well as within government. The issue has been raised on several occasions with senior members of the Belize Police Department and, despite a roundabout response; the matter has not been addressed formally. That was […]
