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Hearing of rape convict’s appeal deferred
The hearing of an appeal for Hopetown, West Coast Berbice resident, Talbert McPherson, who was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for raping an eight-year-old girl, has been deferred to Monday, January 13, 2020.
RAPE CONVICT: Talbert McPherson
When the matter came up yesterday at the Court of Appeal, McPherson’s lawyer, Arnand Gossai, requested an adjournment to file submissions as he was unable to peruse the records of appeal since he only received them on Wednesday from another lawyer.
Senior State Counsel Natasha Backer raised no objections to counsel’s request. Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud, will be hearing this appeal.
McPherson committed the offence against the young girl between Wednesday 12th August and Thursday 13th August 2009 at No. 30 Village, West Coast Berbice.
McPherson was tried before Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court in Berbice. It was previously reported that the child lived with her mother aunt and a cousin and had known McPherson as he lived with her aunt and grandmother. On the day in question, her mother took the two children to her grandmother’s residence to stay for the night, because she was attending a wake.
Early in the night, they watched a movie with her grandmother after which she and her cousin retired to bed. She was lying on a mattress with others when she saw a shadow. The light from outside was shining in the room and she recognised the person to be McPherson who subsequently has sex with her.
The next day she informed her mother who reported the matter to the police. The child was taken to the hospital where it was observed that she had bruises on her vaginal wall and anus.
When asked by the trial judge if he had anything to say in response to the jury’s verdict, Lancaster said, “Sir with all due respect, I am not a violent person. I did not take the life of a person and I am still in trouble. I did not do it.”
The judge, however, indicated that he found Lancaster’s remark strange, and asked him if he were “sick” as he could not imagine why someone would want to do something like that to an eight-year-old girl.
Lancaster had claimed that the girl’s family “are always after me; they always after me”. During his trial, the prosecution called eight witnesses including the virtual complainant, her mother, grandmother, a doctor and police officers.
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