2012 Soesdyke rape, assault: CCJ to rule on whether sentences imposed on convict were appropriate

Guyana’s final court of appeal, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will this week deliver its decision on whether the sentences imposed on a 29-year-old man convicted of raping and assaulting a woman were appropriate.
In 2015, Calvin Ramcharran was convicted by a jury of rape and assault causing actual bodily harm committed on a woman, 20, on July 23, 2012. He was sentenced to 23 years and three years in prison on the rape and assault charges, respectively.

Trial Judge Jo Ann Barlow ordered that the sentences are to be served concurrently. Through his Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes, Ramcharran filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence at the Guyana Court of Appeal.
Among other things, in his grounds of appeal, he had pointed to “several errors in law” committed by the trial Judge and argued that the sentences were excessive.
Finding that Ramcharran’s appeal had no merit, it was dismissed in January 2021 by the appellate court which held that the only shortcoming on part of the trial Judge was her failure to outline how she had arrived at the sentences.
Given the aggravating circumstances, especially the fact that the victim was beaten during the commission of the rape, the Court of Appeal unanimously agreed that the sentences were just. In the end, the court affirmed his conviction and sentences.
Ramcharran was granted leave by the Court of Appeal to appeal against his sentences to the Trinidad-based court of last resort. Before the CCJ, Ramcharran’s lawyer submitted that when compared to precedents set out by the very CCJ, the Court of Appeal failed to adhere to sentencing guidelines established therein.
In advocating his case, Hughes relied heavily on the case of Linton Pompey v the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of Guyana – a sexual offence case brought to finality by the CCJ. On September 21, 2015, Pompey was convicted of two counts of rape and one count of sexual activity with a child under the age of 16.
He was sentenced to 15 and 17 years in prison on the first and second counts of rape, respectively, and five years in prison on the sexual activity charge. Trial judge Barlow ordered that the sentences are to be served consecutively—bringing the convict’s total sentence to 37 years’ imprisonment.
The sentences were later affirmed by the Guyana Court of Appeal. However, in a majority ruling in May 2020, the CCJ found that the 37-year sentence was manifestly excessive. While the CCJ affirmed the sentences imposed appeal court, it ordered that they run concurrently, thereby reducing Pompey’s total sentence to 17 years.
While he acknowledge the serious nature of sexual offences, Hughes said that given the directives outlined in the Pompey case in which the complainant was a child, in Ramcharran’s case where the complainant was an adult, he thought the Court of Appeal would have lowered his client’s sentence.
On behalf of the State, Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Diana O’Brien told the CCJ that when considering the majority of comparable cases in Guyana, the sentences imposed on Ramcharran did not fall outside of the ranges in those cases.
As it relates to whether a sentence starting-point, or range in relation to an adult victim of a sexual offence should be necessarily lower, O’Brien reasoned that this would depend primarily on the circumstances of the particular case.
Relying on case law authorities, the prosecutor submitted that the Court of Appeal was right in not interfering with the sentences since it did not find them to be wrong in principle, nor did it consider them to manifestly excessive or unjust.
Ramcharran’s appeal was heard by CCJ Justices Winston Anderson, Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, Andrew Burgess, Peter Jamadar, and Denys Barrow.
In Ramcharran’s case, the evidence disclosed that on the night in question – July 23, 2012 – the woman had gone to a party at Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD), with some friends, and was making her way to the washroom when Ramcharran followed her and asked her if she was “doing business.”
When she replied, “No”, he grabbed her hands. A fight ensued between them, during which Ramcharran hit her several times with a bottle to her head, and then dragged her to the back of the building. Whilst there, he choked and punched the victim, after which he had sex with her against her will.
After committing the heinous act, he offered the woman $65,000 and instructed her to meet him at a car on the road. However, the victim, who was stripped of her clothes by the convict, alerted her friends, who immediately carried her to the hospital. The matter was reported, and Ramcharran was arrested and charged.
The CCJ will rule on Friday. (G1)