By RHONDOR DOWLAT Tuesday, June 29 2010

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NINE persons from Barataria have been arrested in connection with the brutal murder of a 16-year-old boy from Morvant, who was abducted, badly beaten, chopped and shot on Saturday night. His body was then tied to a tree at Maracas, St Joseph.

A passer-by found Arron London’s body tied to a tree among bushes, at about 11.45 pm on Saturday, and contacted the St Joseph police.

London, who, his mother Benedict said, was a slow-learner, had bruises, chop and bullet wounds about his body.

Investigators from the Northern Division may have made an early breakthrough in this murder with the arrests of the nine suspects at a house in Barataria, located off the Priority Bus Route, on Sunday.

Police believe London may have gone to a party where he was bullied by a group of partygoers who took him to Maracas where they tortured him out of “pure wickedness”. London’s mother Benedict, however, says he may have been kidnapped and killed because he liked a girl from Barataria.

“My son left home on Saturday and that was the last I saw of him. He was attracted to a girl in Barataria and I believe that when he went to purchase KFC, on Morvant Junction, he was spotted by a group of persons who abducted him and took him to Maracas, St Joseph, where they severely beat him, chopped him several times about the body and then shot him in the head.

“Like that was not enough for them, they then tied his body to a tree and left him there. Thank God, someone saw him and was able to contact the police,” Benedict told Newsday.

Interviewed at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, where she waited for the results of the autopsy, Benedict said, “My son is special and I can’t understand why anybody would have wanted to do what they did him.”

London, she said, attended Goodwill Industries, Fitzblackman Drive, Port-of-Spain, an institution which provides training to persons with disabilities.

“He was a slow learner and he loved to go to his special school. He was very loving and pleasant. Even police looked at his body and turned to me and asked if he was retarded. He was harmless,” she said. London was one of her four children.

Up to press time, the nine suspects were still in custody at the Barataria Police Station, where they were taken after their arrests.

London was one of 11 persons murdered over the weekend, in a killing spree that pushed the toll to 272.

The weekend’s murder victims are:

Friday, June 25, 2010
Rajesh Ganesh, of Ojoe Road, Sangre Grande, robbed and shot in Valencia.
Leroy Nickie, 32, of Laventille, shot dead at Mucurapo.
Neelan George, of Calvary Hill, Morvant, shot dead near his home.
Bernard Walcott, 31, of La Canoa Village, shot dead at La Canoa Road, Santa Cruz.

Saturday, June 26, 2010
Andrew Martinez, of Todd’s Road, Talparo, Cumuto, shot dead.
Stefan Alexander, shot dead outside his home at Sherwood Park, Arima.
Tessa Fonrose, 20, of Stella Street, St Augustine, found dead in a drain at the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway.
Kentif Henry, 28, of Laventille Extension, Morvant, shot dead in Maloney.
Unidentified man found with chop wounds at Manzanilla beach.
Unidentified man found shot dead at North Coast Road.
Arron London, 16, Morvant, beaten, chopped, shot. Found tied to a tree in St Joseph.