– Blames ‘error’ in sentence calculation for early release
Fifty-one-year-old Bibi Shareema Gopaul, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the brutal murder of her 16-year-old daughter Neesa Gopaul, has been returned to prison after it was discovered that an error had led to her early release some three months ago.
Bibi Gopaul
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which handed down the sentence in August of last year, stipulated that it would take effect from March 5, 2015, the day a jury found Bibi guilty. Several reporters had questioned the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) to find out why the woman was released so early, after word leaked of her resettling in West Demerara.
The Guyana Prison Service (GPS) on Thursday issued a directive to bring Bibi back to prison to finish completing her lawful prison term. According to the Prison Service, Bibi’s early release from prison was caused by an error in the sentence computation. The murderer was resentenced by the regional court to 30 years in prison, with the possibility of being paroled after 15 years had been served.
As a result of the CCJ’s ruling: to deduct five years from this sentence for time spent in imprisonment while on remand, Bibi has to serve a maximum of 25 years in prison, starting from the date of her conviction way back on March 5, 2015.
Regrettably, the Prison Service said, a calculation error caused the sentence to begin on October 10, 2010, the day Bibi was initially charged and remanded to prison for her child’s murder, rather than March 5, 2015, the day of the conviction and imposition of sentence by the High Court.
Neesa Gopaul
However, the convicted killer was rearrested on Thursday at Parika, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), and has since been placed behind bars.
The more than a decade-old murder of 16-year-old Neesa was settled on Friday, August 19, 2022 with Guyana’s highest court — the CCJ —overturning the conviction and 45-year prison sentence of the teenager’s stepfather, Jarvis Small, 45.
The father of three was freed owing to the CCJ’s finding that he was “gravely prejudiced” at his trial back in 2015 before Demerara High Court Judge Navindra Singh.
Decomposed body in suitcase
On October 2, 2010, the badly decomposed body of the younger Gopaul was found with the head bashed in, stuffed in a suitcase in a creek at the Emerald Towers Resort at Madewini, Linden-Soesdyke Highway.
Also discovered were her passport, bank card and other personal items. The suitcase was wrapped with rope and attached to dumbbells in an apparent effort to keep her body submerged.
The straight-A Queen’s College student was found weeks after she was reported missing from her Leonora, West Coast Demerara (WCD) home. Her cause of death was given as multiple blunt force trauma to the head.
