Justice Joann Barlow has become a person of interest to me

Nov 19, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I went to see one of the newest appointees on the High Court circuit – Justice Joann Barlow. I was contacted by the relatives of an accused who was sentenced to forty-five consecutive years in jail on two counts of rape under the Sexual Offences Act. It is very instructive for readers to note that under this Act even finger insertion into the vagina is classified as rape.
It is important then that reporters go more into details. You can be charged for rape by finger penetration and for rape through physical brutality. In the trial where the accused got forty-five consecutive years, the charges were for finger penetration.
I cannot offer details of the court case because under the Sexual Offences Act, journalists are not allowed to cover the proceedings. I don’t agree with that policy. Journalists can be made to submit their reports to the presiding Judge before publication, and should be under the strictest guidelines not to name the victim and provide details of school and address.
But I think the presence of the media in court cannot be anything but positive in terms of the safeguards of constitutional rights of an accused, especially if you have an inexperienced Judge, overtly aggressive Prosecutors and the accused facing a penalty that includes over forty-years in jail but hasn’t got an Attorney.
I read the depositions in this case. I am convinced that grey areas exist. I have a daughter who is the centre of my world so I think rapists should be dealt with condignly by the courts. But as a human rights activist, I believe that justice is an entitlement to all humans so finely adumbrated over three thousand years ago by the western world’s first book on philosophy, Plato’s “The Republic.”
The accused did not have a lawyer. An appeal has been made with a competent lawyer handling the appeal. I will leave it at that.
The relatives didn’t know the name of the Judge so they told me it was Judge Joann Barlow. Ms. Barlow came out of her chambers after persistence by me but she said she would not speak to the media. She politely informed me she was not the Judge. Then I was told it was Justice Barnes. It wasn’t her. I ended up with the name Justice Roxanne George who declined to speak to the media. Let me be pellucid. I went to see the judge on the issue of the process known as “State Brief.”
That was all; nothing more, nothing less. “State Brief” is a situation where a Judge can request defence counsel for an accused other than the capital offence. If the Judge feels that the situation warrants the accused to have legal assistance he/she can make such request to the Chief Justice. My understanding is that Judges in Guyana do not pursue the “State Brief” road. Judges are not inclined to speak to the media about court trials even though they are done and dusted.
Justice Barlow has come within my radar for what in my opinion are curious sentences. Let’s see. Kenrick Morrison was sentenced to seven years for rape of an underage child. Lindon Pompey was given 37 consecutive years on two counts of rape and one count of sexual activity with a child. This was the act of fondling her breast.
Let us do some logical deduction here. If Morrison was given seven years for one count, one assumes, given the Judge’s way of configuring her punishment, he would have received 21 years for three counts. Pompey should have received 14 for two counts, plus five years for breast-fondling. That would be 19 years. But he got 37 years; 15 on the first count, 17 on the second and five for breast fondling. The sentences will run consecutively. The same Justice Barlow gave Calvin Ramcharran 23 years for rape involving penile penetration.
He got four years for brutal assault on the victim. The two sentences will be concurrently. So Morrison got 7; Pompey got 15, then, 17; Ramcharran got 23.
The same Justice Barlow sentenced Joseph Williams to 15 years after his gang robbed and shot gas station proprietor Albert Gajadhar of $8 million and murdered Gajadhar’s employee, Victor Da Silva.
At a time when brutal murders accompany violent robberies, I would have thought a longer sentence would have been appropriate to send a strong message to these killers. This week, the controversial Magistrate, Judy Latchman put $100,000 bail on a police officer for a sexual offence. This was chicken feed according to Latchman’s standards. Life is funny in Guyana.

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Justice Joann Barlow has become a person of interest to me

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