As a 16-year-old Cou­va school­boy re­mains in po­lice cus­tody for stab­bing Mara­bel­la labour­er Ak­il Sylvester to death on Fri­day, neigh­bours are call­ing for his re­lease, say­ing he was de­fend­ing his moth­er who was be­ing se­vere­ly beat­en.

Po­lice said the boy was tak­en to the South Oropouche Book­ing Cen­tre for safe­keep­ing af­ter seek­ing med­ical at­ten­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­port, the 35-year-old moth­er was in down­town Cou­va around 2 pm prepar­ing to re­turn home, when on en­ter­ing her ve­hi­cle, Sylvester, 36, of Old Train­line Road, Mara­bel­la, en­tered and ac­com­pa­nied her home.