RECAPTURED: SHELDON HENRY IS BACK IN CUSTODY.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Monday April 4, 2016 – The last of the six men who escaped from St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital last week is back in police custody, and he claims he was running away from abuse at the hands of prison officers.
Murder accused Sheldon Henry, alias Sheldon Thomas, was captured on Saturday night in Chaguaramas, in the North West Peninsula of Trinidad, where he was hiding under a jetty.
Police, acting on information they received around 8 p.m., went to Staubles Bay in Chaguaramas and saw Henry on the compound of Lennox Industries. When the officers called out to him, he fled and jumped into the water nearby. Lawmen sought the assistance of the Coast Guard and Henry was later found hiding under the jetty.
He is expected to appear in court this week to answer a charge of escaping lawful custody.
Henry had escaped from the hospital between midnight last Monday and 1:50 a.m. on Tuesday. The other five were recaptured within hours, while the 31-year-old who had been referred by the court to the St Ann’s Hospital on March 7 for observation, remained on the lam.
He had previously been on remand at the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca, since being charged with murder of Anthony Lemessy on August 19, 2004.
Henry, who is also facing 14 other charges, including possession of firearm, possession of ammunition, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, wounding with intent and possession of cocaine, had been described by police as armed and dangerous.
But he claimed in a text message sent to the Trinidad Guardian newspaper a day before he was nabbed, that he was only trying to escape the beatings he was subjected to in prison for more than a decade on remand and he was not committing any crimes while on the run.
“I am getting plenty licks in d prison 12 years without a trial . . . I cant take it no more they force me to take my freedom, mask men at d prison beat me for absolutely nothing I got licks 3 times this year on the 18 of February I was beaten in the ecrc [Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre] prison . . . I thank GOD FOR MY FREEDOM I AM NOT COMMITTING A SINGLE CRIME, AM ENJOYING PEACE,” the message read in part.
After Henry had escaped, his mother had also spoken to the local media about the alleged beatings.