Clothes vendor claims life imprisonment sentence “excessive”
Killing of 3 children
…moves to Appeal Court
A 40-year-old man who, in 2016, was sentenced to life imprisonment for hacking to death his three children as they lay asleep, has now moved to the Court of Appeal (COA) to challenge the sentence.
John Blanchard
Initially, John Blanchard was indicted for murder by state prosecutors, but opted to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter when he appeared in the High Court before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow.
He was handed a life sentence in relation to each of the killings, with the possibility of becoming eligible for parole after serving 30 years.
In his appeal, he is contending that the sentences are excessive and severe in all the circumstances of the case.
On October 11, 2011, Blanchard admitted that at Dr Charles Sand Road, Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD), he unlawfully chopped and stabbed his three young children: Joy (6), Belika (10), and Daniel (4). Belika and Daniel died almost instantly, while Joy succumbed a day later, after being on a life support machine at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC).
John Blanchard, his reputed wife, and the three children that he killed
According to reports at the time of the incident, the children’s mother, Onica Blanchard, had left for the interior, and the chopping incident allegedly stemmed from a phone conversation Blanchard had with her over difficulties in their relationship. (G1)
