Neesa Gopaul’s mother freed after spending 13 years in jail for murdering daughter

Nov 09, 2023 News

– Prison Service tight-lipped on grounds for release

Kaieteur News – Bibi Shareema Gopaul, the mother of murdered Queen’s College teen Neesa Gopaul has been released early from prison.

Gopaul’s release comes close to two years after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) had reduced her 45-years jail sentence to 25 years in prison.

Bibi Shareema Gopaul

This newspaper understands that Gopaul was released three months ago. A source claimed that she was granted further remission on her sentence due to her good behaviour in prison. However, it was pointed out that even with the remission, the release appears questionable. This newspaper reached out to the Guyana Prison Service as well as a lawyer who represented Gopaul during the trial; all parties declined to comment.

On October 2, 2010, the partially decomposed body of the teenager who attended Queen’s College was found stuffed into a suitcase, which was anchored in a creek with several dumbbells at the Emerald Tower Resort at Madewini, Soesdyke-Linden Highway.

Bibi and her lover, Jarvis ‘Barry’ Small were found guilty of the teen’s murder following a trial before Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court in March 2015. She was initially sentenced in the High Court to 106 years in jail while Small, was sentenced to 96 years. At the initial sentencing, Justice Singh took into consideration gruesome manner in which the victim who was only 16 when she met her demise, this included the extent of the injuries she received, the manner in which her body was disposed of and the fact that she was killed by persons close to her.

The pair then filed appeals against their convictions and sentences. Gopaul’s sentence was later reduced to 45 years and then further reduced to 25 years with the possibility of parole after 15 years, following appeals to the Guyana Court of Appeal and the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2022. The CCJ rejected her appeal to have her case dismissed but directed that her co-accused, Small, be freed due to lack of sufficient evidence to link him to the teen’s murder. In 2022, the CCJ overturned the conviction and sentence of Small calling the evidence proffered against him in the lower courts “greatly prejudiced”. Small was freed of the 2010 murder, some eight years after he was found guilty of the crime. CCJ’s Justice Denys Barrow said that the case against Small should have been dismissed since there was no case for him to answer due to the lack of evidence.

The court also agreed with the contentions of Small’s Attorney, Nigel Hughes that he should have been tried separately at the High Court since the evidence led in the trial was “greatly prejudiced” against him.

He noted that there were three pieces of evidence proffered to tie him to the crime–reports that he had sexually assaulted Neesa, a pair of dumbbells that reportedly belonged to him found at the scene of the murder, and a statement by Small that he did not murder Neesa but he knew who did.

The CCJ rejected the State’s argument that the report of sexual assault was motive enough for Small to want to kill his teenage stepdaughter. The court dismissed the argument as “pure speculation.” With regard to the dumbbells, the court found that there was no evidence to show that Small had a hand in tying the dumbbells to the suitcase found with the body at the scene of the crime.

In relation to Small’s statement that he knew who killed Neesa, the court found that it was impossible to conclude that because he said he knew of the killing, he was the killer. The CCJ found also some serious investigative flaws and noted that other supportive evidence was weak or equitable in the case.

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Bibi Shareema Gopaul, Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Neesa Gopaul, Queen’s College teen, sentence

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