Five cases completed at October Criminal Assizes
Among the cases completed were two of alleged sexual related offences, including that involving Oswin Barker, who was found not guilty.
The other case saw Julian Christopher handed a 15-year sentence after being found guilty of three counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault.
The media and the public were also banned from the latter case and it seems all sexual-related matters in the Virgin Islands High Court are now likely to be held in camera as the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has vowed to continually block the media from covering such cases.
This was revealed in the High Court on Monday November 26, 2012 by Senior Crown Counsel Valston Graham. Prior to the commencement of the trial, Graham made an application before Justice Albert Redhead requesting that the matter be held in camera.
“We believe that the public interest ought to prevail especially in crimes of sexual nature and it is for that that I believe the legislators in their wisdom deployed [Section 46] subsection 6 in the Evidence Act. I for one, for the future going forward, will ask for this section to be employed in matters of sexual offences and my application is for the [current] matter to be heard in camera and therefore the media be excluded for the duration of the trial.”
Judge Redhead then granted the application which then excluded the media and all persons not associated with the trial from the court room.
The other cases completed included that involving Danny Benjamin, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail after he was found guilty of two counts of wounding with intent.
A 7-year sentenced was slapped on Jakiel Harrigan, who pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods.
There was also the case of Haitians Roro Eduorne and Renold Plasimond, the men who jurors returned a unanimous guilty verdict on in the High Court on November 5, 2012 on all counts of manslaughter and smuggling of migrants. They were sentenced to 10 years and 6 years total jail time respectively.
The men were jointly charged with eight counts of manslaughter and one count of smuggling of migrants as the Prosecution contended that they were acting together when the incident took place. Two of the eight victims remained unidentified after the tragedy occurred on the fateful night of December 5, 2010.
Edourne, who was the skipper of the boat that ran aground in the Brandy Wine Bay area, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on all 10 counts of manslaughter, however, the sentencing is to run concurrently. He was also sentenced to 4 years imprisonment on the charge of illegal smuggling of migrants.
Time already served is to be taken into consideration, therefore, Edourne will only serve a maximum of 10 years following sentencing.
Plasimond was given 6 years on all counts of manslaughter to also run concurrently and four years on the charge of smuggling of illegal migrants. He will therefore spend the next four years behind bars since time spent in prison is to be taken into consideration.
Justice Redhead also said the issue of age was also taken into consideration in arriving at his decision.
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7 Responses to “Five cases completed at October Criminal Assizes”
The problems have been identified by the late Superintendent of Prisons, Richard Holder in his recent report. There has been much talk about these problems as well as official visits. Now exactly what is going to be done?
Our government seems to find money to build all sorts of ridiculously expensive projects, but in the meantime, our crime rate is growing out of control. In fact it has grown to the point where prisoners will soon be overflowing the prison walls.
This is a really SERIOUS problem and it cannot be swept under the rug! The NDP has a very poor track record when it comes to crime fighting and crime control. They have cut police budgets each time they were in power.
We are all sick to death of the crime in our little paradise. Yet our leaders hang their heads, shuffle their feet, mutter a few words that yeah, crime is a real problem ~ and then they do nothing!
Can we please see the minister actually DOING something, making recommendations and then following through with those recommendations? Where is the curfew we have heard about for several years now? Where are the strict penalties for gun and ammo possession? WHEN will the CCT cameras be legal? Are we going to wait until they they don't work anymore until we actually get the legislation required to use them?
This government needs to take crime more seriously and start cleaning the place up!
the youths will turn to more gun violence now....