Dad charged with murder in beating death of infant son (Trinidad)

Dad is identified as ALLAN THOMAS.

http://guardian.co.tt/news/2013-12-02/murder-charge-baby-jacobs-father

Murder charge for baby Jacob's father

Published: Monday, December 2, 2013

RENUKA SINGH

The father of baby Jacob Munroe will be charged with his murder.

Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard today instructed the police to charge 26-year-old Allan Thomas with his son’s murder.

Thomas will also be charged with attempted suicide.

Gaspard, according to reports, received and reviewed the investigators’ file this morning and made the decision just after 2.30 pm this afternoon.

Thomas was hospitalised since November 19, when he reported to police that abductors had entered his home, made him drink a flammable liquid and then made him slit his own wrists before they snatched the baby.

According to police reports, on that Tuesday afternoon he contacted St Joseph Police saying the child was kidnapped from the family’s home at Santarita Trace, Lluengo Village, Maracas, St Joseph.

The relative claimed three men entered the house, assaulted him and demanded he hand over a gun he was hiding for someone. The men then allegedly grabbed the child and fled the house.

Around 1.30 pm on Wednesday, police searched the family’s property where they found the child’s body, which was wrapped in cloth, in a cesspit.

By Thursday an autopsy found that the baby had been smothered and also revealed bruised to his buttocks indicating that he was beaten before being killed.

Thomas’s hospitalisation had delayed investigations as he was unable to be questioned properly.

This was the first of two murder cases involving young children that have sparked outrage. Days after baby Jacob's body was found, the remains of missing six-year old Keyana Cumberbatch were discovered in a barrel in her mother’s apartment. She had been reported missing two days before the discovery. A post mortem showed she had been beaten to death and sexually assaulted while unconscious.

The DPP's office has not yet been consulted with regard to that investigation.