Suffolk arrest connected to 1982 Kuru Kuru murder
Stabroek News
November 18, 2003
The arrest last week by Suffolk police of a fellow constable is connected to a murder that took place 20 years ago at Kuru Kuru when Brian Spencer was allegedly shot by a jealous husband.
The accused is said to be a Suffolk police constable from Woodbridge in England. He was arrested last Monday and released the next day on bail. He is expected to appear in court in January to answer to bail.
A small team of British police was expected to arrive in Guyana to help investigate the killing, UK police said yesterday.
Meanwhile, sister of Brian Spencer, Denise Spencer, yesterday told Stabroek News that she was puzzled as to how the man was arrested so many years later as it was apparent that the local authorities had closed the investigation after the man had fled the country.
Last week local police were unable to give any information as they said they were trying to ascertain if such a murder had even happened.
Spencer's sister yesterday said that her brother was just 21 at the time. She could not remember the exact date of the murder but said it happened in 1982 on the Kuru Kuru Highway. She and Spencer lived in Buxton, East Coast Demerara, but they used to visit their mother, Norma Spencer in Kuru Kuru from time to time.
Denise said her brother had started a relationship with the man's wife and because of this he would frequent the area. On the day of the incident the husband confronted him and reportedly shot Spencer at close range with a shotgun.
Instead of persons taking her brother to the hospital he was taken to the Kuru Kuru police station where he subsequently died.
She said the family later identified the body at the Georgetown Public Hospital morgue.
Denise said that soon after, they learnt that the man had migrated to London and he was never charged with the murder.
She said that her mother used all the resources she had and hired a lawyer to get the matter to go to court. But in the court case the fact that Spencer was shot and killed was not dealt with. Rather the fact that the gun was not the man's gun was the focus and the matter was later dismissed.
The woman yesterday said that even if the man was deported to Guyana, because she is aware that he cannot be prosecuted in England as the murder did not happen there, she is afraid that he would just be allowed to walk free as the murder is now 20 years old.
Yesterday the police still could not shed any light on the murder. At the time of his death Brian was said to be a carpenter and mason.