Pirate jailed for nine years

Jun 03, 2011 News

---

One of Guyana’s most notorious High Seas pirates Ram Sookdial, called Kevin Narine, Long Hair and Ayodhiaram was yesterday sentenced to nine years in jail, after he was earlier found guilty on a count of robbery under arms by a mixed jury in the Berbice High Court before Justice Brassington Reynolds.
The judge had ordered a probation report. The state’s case was conducted by Dionne Mc Cammon.
The probation report tendered by Senior Probation and Social Welfare Officer, Mitford Ward, stated the man’s full name; that he was born on 25th June 1979 and resides at No 69 village.
Sookdial, it was noted, grew up at Rosignol Village West Bank Berbice. He was the last of four children and lived and worked a few years in French Guiana. He returned to Guyana at age 17.
According to the probation report, despite giving his address as Lot 90 Rambarran Street Bush Lot, Corentyne, Berbice, where he claims he lived for 13 years, he is not known by neighbours or other residents.
Sookdial was before the court on August 10, 2007, charged with robbery. It was stated that while armed with a gun he robbed Balwant Hemraj, of a 40 horsepower Yamaha outboard engine, valued at $500,000, a barrel of gasoline worth $40,000, groceries valued $30,000, fifteen hundred pounds of fish (snapper and trout) valued $400,000,fish glue worth $192,000- a total of $1,132,000.
Recounting the incident Hemraj had stated that on the day in question at about 13:30hrs, he was with four crew members on his fishing boat ‘Shiva’, on the high seas off the Number 47 shore, when the accused whom he knew as Kevin Narine and ‘Long Hair’, was in company with others, and armed with guns approached in a smaller vessel.
He stated that at about four feet away he heard an explosion and a person saying “every one lie down flat with your face downwards”.
The assailants after firing off a round asked for the captain before robbing them of the articles mentioned.
“He asked me if I know him, as he is Kevin Narine, and what he come for he has to get and I can’t do anything”.
The victim told the court that he had known the accused a year prior to the incident, as he too had owned a boat which he moored at Number 66 Village.
He had spoken to him during the ordeal which lasted about 30 minutes. The accused was not wearing a masked.
He stated that the other men who were with him were masked. Hemraj said at the time of the robbery the pony tail bandit was armed and he was afraid of him.
Hemraj related that after the thieves departed, their boat drifted for twenty-four hours before arriving at Wellington Park, Corentyne. He went to the Number 66 Fishing Complex, where he made a report to the Chairman of the Fishing Complex. A report was also made at Number 51 Police Station.
Sookdial who was wanted for crimes in both Guyana and Suriname conducted his own defence and had based his arguments on an alibi.
During the trial Detective Assistant Superintendent of Police Terrace Pau, Detective Corporal Lawrence Harvey and Harbour Master Volton Skeete testified.
In his defence, making a sworn statement from the witness stand, the accused had stated that on August 10, 2007, he was in French Guiana with his relatives, and between January 3 and August 5, 2008, he was incarcerated in a Suriname prison, having being convicted for illegal entry. He was eventually deported to Guyana.
Earlier, Justice Reynolds had allowed an application by the State to amend the indictment to include the name Ayodiaram.
This application was made after the man in the dock, denied being named Ram Sookdial called Kevin Narine.
When asked by the judge if he had anything to say in mitigation, the accused stated that he could not say anything nor could he beg for mercy for something he never did, and stated that he was innocent of the charge.
The judge before passing sentence stated that he took many things into consideration including the fact that the accused had been incarcerated for four years.
“You have not shown any mercy and continue to deny that you committed the act. You seem to be an intelligent person who somehow seems to be on the wrong side of the law. The probation report was not helpful to you at all.”
The judge noted that the victims must have been very horrified when they were left to drift on the high seas without their engine, fuel and food. He then stated that the penalty carries a maximum of life imprisonment, and added that he must impose a custodial sentence that will give the accused enough time to reflect on his life and to use his intelligence for the betterment of himself. He then sentenced Sookdial to nine years.

---

---