Death cheats court in sexual offender’s sentencing

THE STATE yesterday endorsed the death certificate of a convicted sexual offender, who died two days before he was supposed to be sentenced for the offences.  The trial judge then declared the file closed unless otherwise shown. The 48-year-old man, of Coalmine Road, Sangre Grande, was  found guilty of two counts of raping his daughter on March 11.  He was tried before Justice Anthony Carmona at the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court and was scheduled to be sentenced on March 15, but his sentencing was adjourned to yesterday because he was ill.

The media learnt that some time after his conviction, he collapsed in the holding cell at the Hall of Justice and was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he was warded at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) until his demise on Monday. The woodcutter, who reportedly died of a massive heart attack, was buried on that same day. When the matter was called before Carmona yesterday, the dead man’s attorney Andrew Cassimir said his client, who appeared before the court for six weeks, seemed to be a healthy man.  However, he said after visiting him at the ICU he knew he was only going to one place.

The judge then expressed his hope that it was a better place than where the convicted man would have initially ended up because his offences would have attracted a severe sentence. He added that the victim’s “living death” must be appreciated. According to the evidence led by State attorney Nalini Singh, the victim was raped on two occasions — the first time on her 11th birthday on  January 15, 1999, and again on Fathers’ Day in 2003. Singh had requested that he be sentenced to life imprisonment, the maximum penalty for the offences for which he was found guilty. Attorneys Marissa Gomez and Sabrina Dougdeen appeared with Singh for the State.