Second Man Charged Alongside Businessman in Acid Attack Case
October 15 2025
The high-profile acid attack case involving 32-year-old Keron Daniels took a new turn on Monday when he was jointly charged with another man, Ivor Billingy, for allegedly carrying out a brutal assault that left two women with severe burns.
Daniels, who had been facing the charge alone since September, appeared before Senior Magistrate Fabyo Azore at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, where prosecutors withdrew the initial charge and replaced it with a joint charge, naming Billingy as a co-accused.
According to the new charge, on September 3, 2025, at East Street, Georgetown, the two men unlawfully and maliciously threw a corrosive substance with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to 25-year-old Jelicia Leitch and 20-year-old Nirmala Subraj.
The victims were reportedly walking along the roadway when a liquid—believed to be acid—was hurled at them. Leitch was left permanently disfigured and partially blind in one eye, while Subraj sustained burns to various parts of her body.
Police investigators previously identified Daniels, a father of four of Uitvlugt Pasture, West Coast Demerara (WCD), as the alleged mastermind, claiming he orchestrated the attack after a personal dispute involving one of the victims.
He was charged later in September and first appeared before Principal Magistrate Faith McGusty, where the prosecution said CCTV footage placed his vehicle near the scene.
However, the footage was never presented to the court, and Daniels was granted $500,000 bail, despite strong objections from the prosecution, which cited the gravity of the offence and the extent of the victims’ injuries.
When the matter was called before Magistrate Azore this week, the prosecution confirmed that the individual charge against Daniels was withdrawn and replaced with the new joint charge linking him to Billingy.
The prosecutor again objected to bail, highlighting the seriousness of the offence and its devastating consequences for the victims.
The court also heard that the case is proceeding by paper committal, a process that allows the matter to advance directly to trial once witness statements and evidence are filed—intended to speed up the proceedings. If convicted, both defendants could face up to seven years’ imprisonment for the offence.
Daniels’s attorney opposed the prosecution’s objections, arguing that his client had already been granted bail for the same offence, had complied with all court orders, and had not interfered with witnesses.
He stressed that since the original charge was merely replaced by a joint one, Daniels’s bail should be transferred rather than revoked.
The lawyer also criticized the prosecution’s handling of the matter, pointing out that the defence was not notified beforehand that another accused would be added or that the initial charge would be withdrawn.
Responding to the complaint, the prosecutor cited administrative delays in merging the two cases, explaining that the case file was temporarily with another magistrate, which caused both charges to briefly exist simultaneously before the single charge was formally withdrawn.
The court was also told that Billingy—who is already before the court on a separate robbery under arms charge—had recently been granted High Court bail for that offence but was not present at Monday’s hearing.
Prosecutors said a summons will be issued for him to appear on October 21, 2025.
After considering both sides, Magistrate Azore ordered that the previous charge against Daniels be officially withdrawn and that his existing bail be transferred to the new joint case. Daniels remains on bail pending further proceedings.
The matter has been adjourned to October 27, 2025, for continuation.
Police reported that Daniels admitted to investigators he had been involved in a relationship with Leitch, but sought to end it after she disclosed the affair to his wife, leading to escalating tensions.
