140 cases to be heard during Demerara April Assizes

Apr 04, 2017 News

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-Eight murder trials, five for rape of child among 19 presented in January

One hundred and forty cases are scheduled to be heard during the Demerara April Assizes, which are scheduled to begin today.
Gaol Delivery was done yesterday by Justice Navindra Singh bringing to an end the Demerara January 2017 Criminal Assizes which commenced on Tuesday 10th January, 2017.
Nineteen matters were presented during the Demerara January 2017 Criminal Assizes in the High Court of Demerara.
Of these l9 matters presented, eight of them were for murder, one for the offence of manslaughter, five rape of a child under 16, two for the offence of attempt to commit murder; with alternative counts of discharging a loaded firearm with intent and felonious wounding respectively; one case for the offence of rape and robbery, one sexual activity with a child family member and one for the offence of carnal knowledge.
There were seven guilty pleas, four convictions, four not guilty verdicts, one formal verdict of not guilty by judge and three hung juries.
Nine matters were presented before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow. Of these, one was for the offence of murder, five for rape of a child under 16, two for attempt to commit murder with alternative counts of discharging a loaded firearm with intent and felonious wounding, and one carnal knowledge matter.
The accused in the one murder trial pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of
Manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
In one of the five trials for the offence of rape of a child under 16, the jury returned a majority verdict of 11 to one not guilty for the accused. In another three cases the juries could not reach any verdicts and returned hung. While in the other one matter, the complainant commenced her evidence then indicted to the court that she no longer wanted to proceed with the evidence. Justice Barlow then directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty for the accused.
In one of the two matters for the offence of attempt to commit murder with an alternative count of discharging a loaded firearm with intent, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty on the alternative count. In the other matter, the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser count of felonious wounding and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
The jury in the matter for the offence of carnal knowledge returned a guilty verdict for the Accused. However, Justice Barlow deferred sentencing to April 24.
Justice Navindra Singh completed ten matters including seven for murder, one for manslaughter, one for the offence of rape and robbery, and one for two counts of sexual activity with a child family member.
In the manslaughter case, the accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years imprisonment after the trial judge had deducted five years spent on remand.
In one of the seven murder trials in which the accused was indicted on two counts and was sentenced to a total of 94 years imprisonment. On the first count, the jury returned with a unanimous guilty verdict on the lesser offence of manslaughter, for which the accused was sentenced to 32 years imprisonment; and on the second count, the jury was again unanimous with a guilty verdict of murder, for which the accused was sentenced to 62 years imprisonment. The two sentences are to run concurrently.
In four other murder cases, the accused all pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.
One of the four accused was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Two others were each sentenced to eleven years. The fourth accused was sentenced to nine and a half years imprisonment.
In another murder trial where three accused were indicted together, the jury was unanimous in its guilty verdict for all three. They were each sentenced to 80 years imprisonment.
In another matter, the accused was acquitted after the jury was unanimous with a not guilty verdict.
In the one case for the offence of rape and robbery, the accused was acquitted after the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty. In the one case for the offence of two counts of sexual activity with a child family member, the jury returned a majority verdict of 11 to 1 guilty on the first count.
Meanwhile Madam Justice Roxane George, S.C. who commenced the Bartica Massacre trial during the October 2016 Criminal Assizes, completed this trial in January 2017. Five accused were each indicted on 12 counts of murder.
At the commencement of the trial, two of these five accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and were sentenced to 35 years and 60 years imprisonment respectively.
In January 2017, another two accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter. One was sentenced to death after the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on eight of the 12 counts of murder; on the remaining four counts, the jury was also unanimous with guilty
verdicts on the lesser offence of manslaughter, and the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The other accused was also sentenced to death after the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on seven counts of murder. For the additional five counts, the jury was again unanimous with guilty verdicts on the lesser offence of manslaughter and the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment.
One of these five accused was acquitted by the jury on all l2 counts of murder.

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