Manslaughter convict gets 13 years for raping teen girl at knifepoint

Corwyn Arthur of Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), who is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for manslaughter, has been jailed for another 13 years, six months for raping and assaulting a teen girl at knifepoint.

The incident took place almost nine years ago, on December 17, 2013, in Linden. Arthur, called “Cross Eye” was found guilty of the offences by a 12-member jury in March following a trial before Demerara Sexual Offences Court Judge Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.
It was reported that the girl, then 16, was walking home from a friend’s birthday party that night when she noticed a heavily tinted car driving behind her. Arthur, whose face was covered, came out of the car and attacked her with a knife. While running away from him, she tripped and fell onto the roadway. It was then Arthur dragged her into the bushes and attempted to pull off her underwear. The victim had managed to raise an alarm, but Arthur, in retaliation, dealt her one blow to her head with the knife he was carrying and demanded she give him what he wants.
He then slashed her on the forehead with the knife and raped her without using a condom. After committing the act, he asked her if she had money and a Blackberry phone before making good his escape. He was later arrested and identified by the victim, who is now 24, as the man who raped her, by several identification marks, including a scar on his abdomen.

Sentencing hearing
During a sentencing hearing on Monday, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry considered a number of aggravating and mitigating factors in arriving at an appropriate sentence for the convict.
The aggravating factors included Arthur’s lack of remorse, his previous conviction for manslaughter, the use of a dangerous weapon to commit the crime, the psychological effects the incident has had on the victim, the permanent scar she received on her face from the brutal attack and the fact that he had unprotected sex with her, exposing her to sexually transmitted diseases.

Meanwhile, a probation report on Arthur that was presented to the court earlier this month revealed that he has two children. Members of his community described him as a very mannerly person. Similar reports about him came from prison officials who said he was cooperative and not known to get into conflicts with prison officers and other inmates. A probation officer who interviewed the rapist said that he has shown no remorse, maintaining that he did not rape the woman.
For her part, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry noted that Arthur’s later expression of remorse was nothing more than “lip service”. She did, however, observe that he has been taking steps while incarcerated to lead a productive life and used this as a mitigating factor.
In the end, Arthur was sentenced to 13 years, six months, and 18 months on the rape and assault charges, respectively. The sentences will run concurrently. However, the 13-year sentence will only take effect after he completes serving the 15-year sentence for manslaughter. State Counsel Mohammed Ali in association with State Counsel Nafeeza Baig and State Counsel Latifah Elliot appeared for the prosecution while Arthur was represented by Attorney-at-Law Madan Kissoon.
Arthur, who was acquitted on a rape charge in 2009, has a similar charge pending against him.

Victim’s story
For the 24-year-old rape survivor, her life will never be the same as her mind continues to replay the tormenting events of the night she was held at knifepoint and raped.
Although almost nine years have passed since the dreaded incident, the young lady shared that she is still forced to live with those memories. Instead of going through a trial, she said she wished Arthur would have pleaded guilty to the crime.
“I still have a mark on my forehead from him hitting me and pulling me through the bushes. I wish none of it happened,” she shared. She shared that people would see the mark on her face and ask her “like you had a bad fight”. But their endless questioning would bring back so many terrifying memories that she would just laugh them off.
“Since this incident happened, I have never loved anybody. I don’t know why; I have no feelings. I have a son; he is five months old and it’s so hard to love him and show him all the love. It’s so hard for me to show my son all the love because he deserves it,” she wrote in her impact statement.
In addition, she constantly questions how a man could do something “so bad to hurt you and take all the feelings away from you”. The young woman, who now has a five-month-old baby, expressed that she never thought something this bad would happen to her.
“You never know, one day you’re all happy and then it could just happen to anybody. I never thought it could happen to me; he just took all of my happiness from me.” After she was brutally raped, the young woman said she did not want to go back to school because everybody was talking about it and had their “own story”.
“I was scared to go back to school. I eventually went because I had to go to lessons. I made up my mind to go face everybody. It was hard for me. A lot of days I wasn’t even in my right mind; I was just sailing. A lot of times I was just thinking about all the things the individual told me and thanking God for life; I could have died,” she added.
“I couldn’t talk about my story until now. It was hard being around males because all I could think about was that I am going to get hurt. If I talked about what I went through, I wanted nobody to pity me.” According to her, her late mother and her sister helped her to get through the ordeal.
She said what happened to her has made her sister overprotective.
Until now, she shared that people in her community still talk about the incident, and the males in her community would shun her. “…it was something I had to deal with. My mother was very helpful, and she told me I know my truth and I know my story. A lot of times it would get to me, but I still never let negativity and what people say get to me. I never let it get to me to kill myself.”
Now that she has finally received justice, she is a little sad that her mother is no longer here to see it. She said her mother went with her to every court hearing and listened to her.
“I never received counselling, but my mother was a big help because she would ask me a lot of questions and have me talk about my feelings. Talking to my mom at first, I used to cry all the time.” By constantly talking to her mother about what happened, she was, however, able to tell her friends her story. But this, she noted, was not an easy task for her.

Previous sentence
Arthur is currently serving a 15-year jail term for stabbing his ex-lover’s husband to death in 2018. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge, admitting that on May 10, 2018, he unlawfully killed 40-year-old taxi driver Claude De Jonge, also known as “Sonno”, of Linden.
It was reported that De Jonge was stabbed to death while at the home of his girlfriend, who reportedly once shared a relationship with Arthur. De Jonge was found lying motionlessly in a pool of blood next to the front door of the house. At the time, he was clad in trousers and his body bore several stab wounds to the neck, shoulders, and abdomen.