Trinidad cop charged for false claim that prisoner was bitten on genitals

A policeman in Trinidad and Tobago, who made an allegation that a prisoner was bitten on his genitals, was arrested and charged under that country’s Libel and Defamation Act.

The cop, Constable Javaughn Ballington, a court and process officer attached to the Tobago Division, appeared in the Scarborough Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

He was charged after posting a video on social media in which a prisoner's genitals were shown and a claim made that he was bitten during a sexual assault, by a colleague..

Ballington was charged with malicious publication of defamatory libel, following an investigation by the Professional Standards Bureau of the T&T Police Service, who began investigating the publication of a video on social media depicting a prisoner being medically examined with his genitals exposed.

It was alleged in the video that the prisoner had been bitten on the genitals during a sexual assault, a claim that turned out to be untrue.

Ballington, who will be suspended from the police service, was granted $40,000 bail by Magistrate Lucina Cardenes-Ragoonanan and ordered to return to court on May 16.