Court disposes of 23 cases in April sessions of Demerara Assizes

Jun 05, 2017 News

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Twenty-three matters were disposed of during the Demerara April 2017 Criminal Assizes. Of these 23 matters, 17 were presented at the Assizes.
A Gaol delivery was done by Justice Navindra Singh on Thursday last, bringing to an end the Demerara April 2017 Criminal Assizes. The sessions commenced on Tuesday 4th April, 2017 with Justice Singh and Justice Jo-Ann Barlow. A total of 152 cases were listed to be heard during the April Assizes.
Of these 17 cases that were presented, there were nine guilty pleas, four guilty verdicts, one formal verdict of not guilty, one hung jury and two not guilty verdicts by jury. Six matters were nolle prosequi in writing by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
According to the information, Justice Singh completed eleven matters.
Of these 11 matters, five accused were indicted together for the offences of attempt to commit murder of a policeman, discharging a loaded firearm with intent, and unlawful possession of ammunition, murder with an alternative attempted murder, setting fire to the High Court Building and murder. Six other cases for the offence of murder were presented before Justice Singh.
In three of the six cases, the accused all pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and were respectively sentenced to eight, fifteen and nine years imprisonment.
In two other separate trials, one accused was sentenced to life imprisonment after the jury returned a majority verdict in proportion of 11 guilty to one not guilty for the lesser offence of manslaughter.
In the other case, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict for murder and the accused was sentenced to 65 years imprisonment.

Another trial saw the jury returning a majority verdict in proportion of 10 guilty to 2 not guilty, for the offence of murder. The accused in this matter will be sentenced on June 12, 2017.
In one of the five cases, the accused were all indicted on two counts of attempt to commit murder, two counts of discharging a loaded firearm with intent, two counts of wounding with intent and one count for unlawful possession of ammunition.
The numbers one, two, three and four accused pleaded guilty to all seven counts as charged. The number one accused in the matter was sentenced to a total of 50 years imprisonment while the numbers two, three and four accused were each sentenced to 53 years imprisonment. The sentences will run concurrently. The number five accused pleaded not guilty and will await his trial in Court.
In a second trial the five men were indicted on two charges, one for the offence of murder and another for the offence of attempted murder.
The numbers one, two, three and four accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and also pleaded guilty to the offence of attempted murder. The number one accused was sentenced to a total of thirty-five (35) years imprisonment, 25 years for manslaughter and 10 years for the offence of attempted murder.
The numbers two, three and four accused were each sentenced to a total of 34 years imprisonment, 19 years for the lesser offence of manslaughter and 15 years for the offence of attempted murder. The sentences are to run concurrently.
The number five accused pleaded not guilty and will await his trial in Court.
Meanwhile Justice Jo-Ann Barlow completed six matters; one each for the offences of carnal knowledge of girl under 15 years and rape of a child under 16 years, three matters were for the offence of murder and one case for the offence of sexual activity with a child under 16 years.
In the one matter for the offence of carnal knowledge of a girl under 15 years, the accused was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment after the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.
The Virtual Complainant (VC) in the case for the offence of rape of a child under 16 years went into the witness box and testified that she did not wish to continue with her matter. Justice Barlow directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.
In one of the three murder cases, the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. In another one case the jury failed to reach a verdict. A retrial has to be done for this matter.
While the accused in the other case was acquitted after the jury returned with a unanimous verdict of not guilty for the offence of murder and a majority verdict in proportion of 11 to one not guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
In the matter for the offence of sexual activity with a child under 16 years with alternative counts of rape of a child under 16 years, the accused was acquitted on all three counts.
Six matters were nolle prosequi by the DPP; one for the offence of murder, one for rape of a child under 16 years, one for the offence of carnally knowing girl under 15 years, two for the offence of manslaughter and one matter for carnal knowledge of girl under 12 years.

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