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Father, who killed children, loses appeal to reduce 30-year sentence
By Rehanna Ramsay
Convicted: John Blanchard.
Kaieteur News – John Blanchard, the Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara man, who was convicted in 2016 for hacking his three children to death while they slept, has lost his bid to appeal the severity of his sentence.
Blanchard was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment by Justice Jo Ann Barlow following an appearance at the High Court in 2016. He had admitted that he fatally chopped and stabbed his three young children: Joy, 6; Belika, 10; and Daniel, 4.
The incident had occurred on October 11, 2011 at their home at Dr. Charles Sand Road, Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
The former accused, who was initially charged with murder, pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter on his first appearance in the High Court. As such, Blanchard did not undergo a trial in the High Court. He had, however, moved to the Court of Appeal to challenge the sentence on the ground that it was manifestly excessive and severe in the circumstances of the case. The Appeal Court disagrees.
Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cumming-Edwards, who delivered a ruling on behalf of the three-member bench, announced that the life sentence will be upheld since the Appeal Court is of the view that the sentence was fair in the circumstances of the case. The Chancellor noted the case involved three innocent children who were subjected to a heinous crime committed against them by their own father.
She noted that Blanchard‘s reason for stabbing and chopping his children was due to the fact that their mother (his wife) had refused to return home from the interior.
Blanchard, she said, told the High Court that he loved his children but he didn’t know what came over him that night. The Judge noted too that Blanchard had threatened to take his own life but was unsuccessful in doing so. Given those circumstances, Justice Cummings-Edwards said that the accused must remain in prison and serve his sentence. The Court of Appeal, she stressed, will not grant any reduction to the 30-year jail term.
In 2011, Blanchard was living alone with his children on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway when he reportedly went berserk and fatally chopped all three of his young children, following a disagreement with his wife.
Back then, news reports had indicated that at the time of the incident, the children’s mother, Onica Blanchard, was in the interior where she had secured a job.
The reports indicated that Mrs. Blanchard left her children in the care of their father in search of a better job in the mining location in Madhia, Region Eight. The couple had reportedly shared a strained relationship owing to Mrs. Blanchard’s absence. The killings may have been sparked by a telephone conversation that Blanchard had with his wife minutes before the incident, according to the reports.
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