Neesa Gopaul’s mom back in jail

Nov 10, 2023 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

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– Prison Service admits to alleged miscalculation of her prison term

Kaieteur News – In one of the most embarrassing episodes of the Guyana Prison Service, it was on Thursday forced to re-imprisoned Bibi Gopaul – the woman who murdered her daughter back in 2010, but was shockingly released three months ago after spending just 13 years on a 25 year jail term.

The woman was reportedly rearrested at Parika, East Bank Essequibo. President Irfaan Ali told News Source that he has requested all of the information surrounding the woman’s release, including the calculations of her sentence and time served, to be made available to him. He said if anyone is found responsible for misconduct in relation to Gopaul’s early release, they will face full consequences and be held accountable. Also at a news conference Thursday afternoon, Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo said there will be a full investigation into the matter. He said an investigation would be done to figure out what went wrong and possibly, whether anyone should be penalised. “When the full investigation is completed, then questions of accountability as to how this happened will be addressed. “Right now, the position of the Government of Guyana is that this cannot stand,” Jagdeo told the news conference.

The Prison Service in a statement following public outcry over the woman’s early release said that it had miscalculated her prison term. “Today the Guyana Prison Service has issued a directive to recall convicted murderer, Bibi Gopaul to prison to complete serving her lawful sentence imposed by the Caribbean Court of Justice,” the service noted in the statement.  According to the prisons, Bibi Gopaul, who was ordered to serve a 25-year prison term for the murder of her daughter, was recently released from Prison as a result of an incorrect calculation of her prison term.

“The CCJ in their judgement had ordered that Prisoner Gopaul was to serve 25 years from the date of the conviction. The sentence in the words of the CCJ is as follows: “In all of the circumstances… a just and proportionate sentence is 30 years imprisonment with no eligibility for parole before the expiration of 15 years. From this sentence, the period of 5 years will be deducted for time spent in custody while on remand, with the practical consequences that from the date of conviction in 2015, Gopaul will spend a maximum of 25 years in prison.”  The Guyana Prison Service said, “Unfortunately, and in error, the Prison Officials reckoned the sentence to run from the date Gopaul was first remanded which was the 10th of October 2010, and not the 5th of March 2015 which was the date of conviction and on which sentence was imposed.  From the clear language of the order of the CCJ, the sentence should have been reckoned to start to run from the 5th March 2015.”

Granted remission

Contrary to what the prison service has said, this newspaper was told that Gopaul was released three months ago after being 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 had reached out to the Guyana Prison Service as well as a lawyer who represented Gopaul during the trial- all parties had 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 the 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 Gopaul, Neesa Gopaul, Parika, President Irfaan Ali, re-imprisoned

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