The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A MAN says he was at the Central Detective Unit on December 8 when he saw a “disoriented” Marvin Pratt - the missing Gambier Village man who police have denied ever taking into custody.

The man, who described himself as having been “in and out” of jail over the years, spoke to The Tribune anonymously yesterday.

Though he revealed his identity to this newspaper, he was adamant it not be disclosed for fear of retaliation.

He has given his account to Rights Bahamas, the human rights group representing Mr Pratt’s family. The Tribune understands there is an ongoing effort to convince him and others to identify themselves for the legal case the humanitarian group is building.

The man claimed he was in CDU on drug related matters.

He said he identified Mr Pratt because the pair “go way back” and were students together at AF Adderley High School.

“He could be walking at night and I would know him,” he said. “I know him like a brother.”

“I saw (officers) carrying him in the backroom. He was handcuffed. My girlfriend was in the lobby area when Barbara Saunders (Mr Pratt’s mother) came asking for him. I got out that same day.”

He claimed two men carried Mr Pratt to what seemed to be the cell block, a “stubby” officer and a “slim” officer, both wearing plain clothes.

He said he saw Mr Pratt for about ten seconds. He said he was handcuffed to a bench downstairs in CDU when he saw Mr Pratt around 9pm that night. He claimed Mr Pratt looked beaten and disoriented.

“He looked like he was out of it, like he wanted to die right there and then if you ask me,” the man said.

Rights Bahamas filed a writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court last month seeking to compel police to produce Mr Pratt.

A neighbour of the family, Rose Francis, alleged in an affidavit that she was walking home on Holly Hock Road on December 5 when she saw officers arrest Mr Pratt.

Ms Saunders, in her affidavit, alleges a friend of the family who works in the forensics unit of the police force told her he saw Mr Pratt in custody and he “appeared battered and bruised”.

Rights Bahamas has not secured a date for the habeas corpus hearing. The slowness of the court has frustrated the family.

Ms Saunders said each day she grows more agitated by the disappearance of her son. She has printed and distributed fliers alleging that a “conspiracy of denial” explains his disappearance.

When police found a badly decomposed body off the East West Highway in December, she went to the morgue to check if it was her son. “A man who I think was a police officer told me go to the commissioner and tell him give me my son because they know where he is,” she said. “They tell me the body that they found been there was there for at least four or five months so that ain’t my son.”

Yesterday, Chief Superintendent of Police Solomon Cash said the body found is so badly decomposed police cannot ascertain an identity. He said DNA test results are pending.