2011 Benschop assault case: Kwame McCoy charged

Georgetown: After a five-year gap, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) activist Kwame McCoy was Wednesday  placed on $275,000 bail when he appeared before Magistrate Lerone Bailey at the Providence Magistrate’s Court, where he was made to answer charges of damage to property, simple larceny and common assault committed on activist Mark Benschop. McCoy, 40, was charged after the police received advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Police Force’s Legal Advisor.
McCoy denied the charges which stated that on March 5, 2011, while in the company of others at New Diamond Scheme, East Bank Demerara, he unlawfully and maliciously damaged one F150 motor pickup licenses # GLL 3101, valued 1.5 million, a movable private property of Benschop.
On that same date and occasion it is alleged that he stole one Acer Laptop valued $120,000 of the said virtual complaint and he unlawfully assaulted Benschop.
His Attorney Euclin Gomes told the court that he had received information that two statements submitted to the police by McCoy were not included in the file sent to the DPP.
He said that amounts to denying his client his right to due process and asked that he be released on his own recognizance.
McCoy was granted $200,000 bail for the damage to property; $50,000 for simple larceny and $25,000 for the common assault charge. The matter was adjourned until May 18, 2016.
In February this year McCoy, along with Jason Abdulla and Sean Hinds, were charged for the assault of another political activist, Freddie Kissoon. That matter is being heard at the Georgetown magistrates’ Court