Triple killer gets 20 years

A man who murdered three women, including his wife, was handed a 20-year sentence yesterday after the Privy Council reduced his triple murder conviction to manslaughter. Bimal Roy Paria, who has already benefited from the Privy Council ruling, will benefit again from the Court of Appeal which backdated his sentence to start from the date of the Privy Council’s ruling — April 15, 2003.  Paria, a father of two, had beaten the three women to death with a piece of wood on July 24, 1998, at Farm Road in St Joseph. He first killed his wife’s mother Sita Arjoon, then his wife Asha, followed by her sister Anna Arjoon. Paria was found guilty of murdering the three women and sentenced to hang by Justice Ivor Archie, on July 19, 2000. He lost his local appeal and then went to the Privy Council.

There, the Law Lords ruled that the trial judge had failed to direct the jury on the second limb of  “good character,” and as a result decided to quash the death sentence and replace it with manslaughter. They then remitted the matter to the Court of Appeal for sentencing. Attorneys Desmond Allum SC and Rajiv Persad had argued that Paria should only be given 12 years, while Deputy DPP Carla Brown-Antoine insisted nothing less than 20 years. The Court of Appeal, comprising Justices Lionel Jones, Margot Warner and Wendell Kangaloo, said: “It is plain from these authorities that this court has taken a very serious view of domestic violence which is prevalent in our society. We take the point also that society is calling for a higher measure of self control in all cases.

“We take into account as well that the appellant has been in custody since July 1998, and on Death Row from July 2000. A conviction for manslaughter attracts a sentence of life imprisonment or imprisonment for any term of years. We reiterate our concern of the level of domestic violence in our society and we have given expression to this in the sentences of this court.”