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For the animal cruelty charge - they will be sentenced in May - as the Commissioner explained.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"What happens today is that them having pled guilty to those two counts, and not guilty on one, the magistrate has now ordered that we return to court on the fifth of May, where she'll be hearing mitigation from the accused persons, and then the prosecution is going to certainly do a submission to oppose the mitigation."

"Certainly we'll be going for a term of imprisonment as opposed to a fine. And then, in respect to the count for which they had pled not guilty, she has adjourned that to a date in June, when the matter is going to be heard."

Jules Vasquez
"You had applied in court that no bail be granted, but that was unsuccessful. From a policing perspective, you have to be disappointed in that outcome."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well, the magistrate do have a right to exercise her discretion. Certainly we were hoping for a different outcome. I laid down the four grounds on which I believe that the court should not have granted bail. And those grounds include the fact that the offenses that are for which they are charged with are very serious offenses."

"We have to send a strong message to persons who are committing these type of activities, as well as to those who may intend to do so in the future. The third one was the callousness with which the young men perpetrated this crime."

"It shows that they have no regards to the life of these animals. And if they have no regards to the life of animals, then certainly they will not have regards to the life of human beings as well. And the last one was the fact that this is a crime or these are crimes that certainly shock the conscience of a society."

"And while, as I said to the magistrate, that the court should not act based on public pressure, public sentiment, the court do have a responsibility to address certain issues where in-piece of crime is concerned."

"Despite that, the magistrate in her wisdom decided that she was going to grant bail. to the accused persons and that is within her right. So I don't have an issue with that. I am satisfied with the conditions that she had placed on them whilst on bail."

"It is now my hope that they are going to comply with those conditions."

Jules Vasquez
"There's a lot of very serious and dangerous horseplay between these young men. And this is what ended up with the horse being aimed at, is there anything you all can do to stop this escalation?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"And again, Jews that what you just cited is clearly an indication that this is not going to stop. There is a very strong potential that it is going to continue. And I hope and pray that we're not going to be witnesses to another horse being mutilated the way how we saw in that video that was circulating recently."

Reporter
"The fact that they have antecedents. um in court as well can you speak about that? I don't know how many."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well the truth is um some of them have very long rap sheet and they're very young and to see they have such long rap sheet at such a young age I could just imagine and um and that was one of the reason why I believe that bail out not to have been granted because there's a very high potential that they will reoffend whilst on bail, not because you're objecting to bail means that you're trying to punish somebody and that's the reason why i've said to the magistrate that as a part of the condition of them being remanded that an order be made for them to undergo psychiatric evaluation, because certainly for for for persons to have committed the act that they did something has to be wrong with them psychologically and it would have been important for them to get that evaluation, it would have helped them um in a positive way so that they don't continue on this path that they're going."

The strict conditions for bail include that the accused are not to have any contact with the complainant, including no text messaging or social media posts - and that they must all comply with a curfew at 8pm nightly.

We note that the 16 year old said in court that he should get bail because he has horses to take care of -and that boys from a rival group come by his house to stay horses, which they allegedly also torture.

So, it's a gang rivalry where horses are collateral damage when they are stolen and tortured as means of retaliation.

Very ugly stuff - and the press asked the Compol if these boys - who have very scarce means should even have possession of these horses - especially when they are being used as proxies in a larger rivalry:

Reporter
"These children do not belong with horses that they are unable to take care of and mistreating."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Certainly, as I said this morning, Marisol that's a matter that will have to be undertaken by different entities. The police are already overburdened with other issues."

"We have been taking on a lot and I don't see the police taking on more of those responsibilities that should fall within the domain of other departments. So I saw what BAHA did recently with this Horse Wani. It shows that they are interested, they are committed as well and I'm certain if something were to go to them, some concerns, they would do what they can to be able to address it as well."