A man ar­rest­ed by Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers re­port­ed­ly at­tempt­ed to harm him­self twice while in cus­tody, prompt­ing ef­forts to have him re­mand­ed to the St Ann’s Psy­chi­atric Hos­pi­tal.

Po­lice said the man, de­scribed as men­tal­ly un­sta­ble, was ar­rest­ed and charged on Fri­day af­ter be­ing found on pri­vate prop­er­ty. He was tak­en to the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion and placed in a cell.

Dur­ing the night, of­fi­cers said the pris­on­er be­gan hit­ting his head on the cell walls. He was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (POS­GH) for treat­ment, then re­turned to the sta­tion and placed alone in a se­cured cell.

But around 8.30 am this morn­ing, of­fi­cers con­duct­ing a rou­tine check found the man bleed­ing from a wound to his throat. His fin­gers were al­so blood­ied. He was rushed once more to the POS­GH, where med­ical staff con­firmed the in­jury was self-in­flict­ed.

A se­nior of­fi­cer con­firmed no one else was harmed dur­ing the in­ci­dent.

Up to 1 pm, the man re­mained in po­lice cus­tody while arrange­ments were be­ing made for his trans­fer to St Ann’s.