Alleged member of criminal network back in custody

Twenty-year-old Robert Belbin, charged last month with a reported robbery and stabbing, is waiting for a bail hearing

Arrested last month in connection with a stabbing on George Street, Robert Belbin is back in custody with charges of violating court orders that banned him from carrying a concealed knife and consuming alcohol.

Belbin, 20, was arrested again June 26 and charged with three counts of breaching those particular orders from a list he was given at the end of May, when he was released from custody to await his next scheduled court date for charges of aggravated assault and robbery with violence.

He was scheduled for a bail hearing in provincial court Tuesday afternoon, but it was postponed until June 30.

Belbin was one of four people apprehended in May — and the second of them to be re-arrested since then — as part of an investigation into what the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary says is the work of a criminal network.

Belbin, 20-year-old Brandon Chafe, 19-year-old Abigail Gillingham and a youth whose identity is protected by a publication ban were charged after a series of incidents that began with a reported shooting at a parked vehicle on Galway Boulevard May 13. Two people wearing masks allegedly opened fire on the vehicle before driving away towards the Trans-canada Highway.

On May 21, a 22-year-old Paradise man was stabbed on George Street and, hours later, police responded to Goldfinch Drive in Paradise to find a man with minor injuries and a home damaged by gunfire.

An apartment building on Thorburn Road was damaged by gunshots in the early morning hours of May 26 and on May 27, a woman escaped a fire at a residence on Baker Street in the city’s east end. Police say the home was damaged by both fire and gunshots. On May 29, the RNC intercepted illegally-owned weapons in the Brookfield Road area.

Belbin was charged related to the stabbing; Chafe with trafficking firearms; Gillingham with careless use of a firearm, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and five other weapons offences; and the youth with breaching a court order. All four were released to await their next court appearance.

Chafe was arrested again along with 22-year-old Thomas Barnes after a shooting in Goulds June 19 that saw a man taken to hospital with serious injuries. Chafe remains in custody with charges of aggravated assault, using a firearm in the commission of an indictable offence and discharging a firearm while being reckless as to another person’s life, along with five other gunrelated charges and two breaches of his previous release order. Barnes, who is facing charges of aggravated assault, unauthorized possession of a firearm in a vehicle and two counts of assault with a weapon, was released on a $500 surety, a $500 personal pledge and a list of conditions.

All five accused are scheduled to appear in court in early July.