Man jailed 60 years for GPHC’s dispatcher murder

Oct 16, 2020 News

Sentenced: Allan Sim.

Kaieteur News – Allan Sim, the man who was indicted for the 2015 murder of his former partner, Melissa Skeete, has been sentenced to serve 60 years in jail.
The sentence was imposed by Justice Navindra Singh at the Georgetown High Court yesterday following hours of deliberation by a mixed 12-member jury that found him guilty of the offence. Based on the sentence of Justice Singh, Sim, 60, will only be eligible for parole after serving 40 years in jail.
Sim had faced a trial for killing Skeete a former Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) dispatcher before the judge and jury after he pleaded not guilty to the charge earlier last week. The case, which was prosecuted by Senior State Counsel, Tuanna Hardy, saw several witnesses taking the stand to testify including police investigators who claimed that Sim told them that he stabbed the woman after she attacked him with a surgical blade.
However, while leading his defence on Monday, Sim told the court after he was arrested by the police, he was taken to several stations and questioned about his former partner’s death but he never responded to the officers.

Killed: Melissa Skeete.

In fact, the accused claimed that he remained silent throughout the interrogation. He said that at no time did he provide any statement to the police as they had alleged.
The accused claimed too that he did not respond because he was advised by his attorney at the time, Patrice Henry, not to respond to the policemen. Henry was then called upon to take the witness stand by attorney Adrian Thompson to substantiate the claims of the accused.
In his sworn testimony, Henry confirmed that he had instructed Sim to remain silent when the police put questions to him. The lawyer claimed he visited the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Eve Leary at sometime and spoke to Sim who confirmed that he had remained silent.
The lawyer was cross-examined by Hardy who suggested that he could not say without a doubt that his client had adhered to his instructions because he was not with his client at all times after he was placed in the custody of the police. After much back and forth, the lawyer agreed with the suggestion.
Sim’s defence came following testimonies of several witnesses including that of State Pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh, who testified that Skeete died of perforation of the lung due to a stab wound to the chest. Dr. Singh had agreed with the suggestion that the woman may have had “some defensive wounds” about her body.
Skeete, a 32-year-old dispatcher attached to the GPHC was stabbed several times about her body on Carmichael Street in the vicinity of The Bishops’ High School on November 23, 2015. The incident is said to have occurred in the daytime while children were still at school. Based on reports, on the day in question, her 60 year-old former partner, Sim, had showed up at the woman’s workplace in his motorcar and picked her up. Sometime later, Skeete was found lying on the roadway in the vicinity of Carmichael Street, Georgetown bleeding profusely from several stab wounds. She died while receiving treatment at the GPHC.

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