Latest update December 11th, 2024 1:33 AM
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Murder, sexual offences dominate last session of Demerara Criminal Assizes
A total of 30 of 301 cases were completed at the June session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes, says the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).
The DPP stated that 24 of them were presented at the Demerara High Court, while the remaining six were not prosecuted by the State. Of the 24 cases presented, 11 were for murder and 13 for sexual offences.
There were 12 guilty pleas, two formal verdicts of not guilty, six convictions, two acquittals, and one aborted trial. One matter still remains in progress. State Counsel Tuanna Hardy, Sarah Martin, Abigail Gibbs and Teriq Mohammed completed eight cases for the offence of murder before Justice Navindra Singh.
In four of the murder cases, nine accused persons pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter. In one of the cases, two accused were indicted together and were each sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.
In another one, there were five accused indicted together, three of them pleaded guilty; one was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, while the other two were each sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment. The other two accused pleaded not guilty and will go to trial. In the other two matters, one accused was sentence to 20 years’ imprisonment and, in the other, the judge made a sentence of the time the accused spent on remand.
In another two separate murder trials, the accused were both found guilty by jury verdicts; one was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment and the other was sentenced to life imprisonment and must serve 50 years before becoming eligible for parole. In the other two cases, there were two accused indicted together.
In one case, the trial judge directed the jury to return formal verdicts of not guilty for both accused. In the other case, the trial judge upheld a no case submission for the number one accused and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty. His co-accused was further remanded to prison to await a new trial after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
State Counsel Seeta Bishundial, Abigail Gibbs and Lisa Cave presented seven matters before Justice Brassington Reynolds. Of these matters, five were for sexual offences and two for murder. In three of the sexual offences cases, there was one accused that faced separate trials; he pleaded guilty in each one and was sentenced respectively to 15 years, 22 years and 35 years’ imprisonment.
In the other two cases, both accused were convicted by jury verdicts; one accused was sentence to 16 years’ imprisonment. The other accused will be sentenced tomorrow.
One of the two murder trials was aborted after the Court was informed that family members of the number one accused were seen speaking with a member of the jury. The other murder case is in progress.
State Counsel Tuanna Hardy and Teriq Mohammed prosecuted one case for the offence of Murder before Justice James Bovell-Drakes. The accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of Manslaughter and was sentenced 30 years’ imprisonment.
Further, State Counsel Teriq Mohammed, Sarah Martin and Tuanna Hardy completed eight matters for sexual offences before Justice Simone Ramlall in the Sexual Offences Court. In four of these cases, the accused all pleaded guilty.
Two of them were each sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment and must serve 15 years before being eligible for parole. While the other two who were each indicted on two counts of sexual activity with a child family member, were respectively sentenced to 43 years and 18 years’ imprisonment.
In the other four cases, two accused were found guilty by jury verdicts; one was sentenced to 23 years’ imprisonment, while the other will be sentenced today. The two others were acquitted after the juries returned verdicts of not guilty. In the six matters nolle prosequi by the DPP, four of the complainants submitted written statements in which they indicated that they did not wish to proceed with the evidence, while two of the accused persons are deceased.
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