13 cases completed at Berbice, Essequibo Criminal Assizes

The October 2022 Criminal Assizes of the Berbice High Court commenced on October 18, 2022, and as at December 31, 2022, seven matters have been completed: four for murder, two for sexual offences, and one for manslaughter. This Assizes continues in January 2023.

State Counsel Nafeeza Baig prosecuted five of these matters before Justice Navindra Singh, while Attorney-at-Law Latchmie Rahamat appeared as a Special Prosecutor for the State in two of the murder cases. In the two sexual offences matters, the complainants testified in court that they did not wish to testify, and the trial Judge accordingly directed the juries to return formal verdicts of not guilty.
In one of the four murder matters, the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter, and was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment. Another murder matter involved three accused who were indicted together, and they were all acquitted by jury verdicts of not guilty. The other two separate murder trials were high-profile matters with a combined seven accused. In one of these cases, there were five accused indicted together, and in the other matter, two accused were indicted together. All seven of them were found unanimously guilty by jury verdicts. Their sentences have been deferred until later this month.
In the matter of the offence of manslaughter, the trial judge upheld a no-case submission and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.

Essequibo Criminal Assizes
The October 2022 Criminal Assizes of the High Court in Essequibo commenced on October 25, 2022, and will continue until February 2023.
As at December 31, 2022, Senior State Counsel Tiffany Lyken had completed six matters before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow: two for sexual offences, and four for the capital offence of murder.

In one of the two sexual offences cases, a jury found the accused guilty of two counts of rape of a child under 16 years old, and the offender has been sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment on each count. These sentences will, however, run concurrently.
In the other sexual offences matter, the jury returned majority verdicts of not guilty in favour of the accused, who had been charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child family member.
In the four separate murder cases, each of the accused pleaded guilty. In one of these matters, the accused, who had been a juvenile when he committed the offence, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced at the court’s pleasure. He has been ordered to serve a minimum of eight years in custody.
In the three other cases, each of the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter, and were
respectively sentenced to eight years; seven years and seven months; and eight years, three months and 28 days’ imprisonment.
Two matters for sexual offences were nolle prosequi by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)
because the complainants submitted written statements indicating that they did not wish to proceed with their matters. (G1)