Trio accused of torture of a child taken to court

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Oliver Sutherland
Elvin Smith

It was not too long ago that a horrific video showing a 16-year-old minor being held hostage and beaten by a grown man was circulated on Facebook. In the video, the person sharing the livestream, identified as Oliver “Spoonaz” Sutherland, could be heard threatening the minor. After an investigation was launched, police were able to arrest three persons, including a woman, in relation to this incident. They are Sutherland, Axia Sanchez, and Elvin Smith.
The trio was taken to the Belize City Magistrate’s Court but, for unknown reasons, they did not appear before a magistrate. Smith was separately taken to the Raccoon Street Police Station while Sutherland was taken to the Queen Street Police Station. Sanchez was allowed to leave without charges being brought against her but Sutherland and Smith were charged with being the member of a street gang. For that charge, they did appear before Magistrate Tricia Pitts-Anderson and remanded to the Belize Central Prison until May 18, 2021.
Just days later, on Tuesday, May 16, 2021, Smith was arraigned on charges of kidnapping and wounding in relation to the aforementioned incident. On these charges, he appeared before Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser and was denied bail and, again, remanded until May 18. It is expected that Sutherland will too be arraigned on those charges but that has not yet taken place.
The video which was widely circulated on social media shows as the 16-year-old is beaten. There is also evidence to suggest that hot wax was dripped on the young man’s back and other parts of his body. His mother says that wax was poured into his ear and down his throat. The video also shows a live electric wire being put to the boy’s body. There is also some footage which shows the boy and another individual in a kneeling position in front of some sort of shrine. This it is believed to be part of some kind of gang initiation.
While criminal charges have been laid, police have also launched an internal investigation after another video shows the same 16-year-old boy being roughed up by police as he was being questioned about what had happened to him.
The original video of abuse reportedly happened in the Conch Shell Bay Area of Belize City.