Appeal Court affirms 12-yr term for rapist

Donald Forbes, aka “Massive” of Princes Town,  lost his appeal yesterday and had his sentence of 12 years hard labour for rape affirmed  by the Court of Appeal. The Court, comprising Justice Lionel Jones, Justice Ivor Archie and Justice Alan Mendonca, also seem to have settled a misconception by some judges that ten-year-old convictions of persons  must not be taken into consideration when passing sentence for another crime. The Court had called on  special State prosecutor Devan Rampersad and Forbes’ attorney Ian Brooks to address them on what the law had to say about such a matter. Rampersad, a former Assistant DPP, told their lordships that the 10-year limitation applied only when bail was being set and not when sentencing.

He explained that under the Criminal Procedure Act, a judge has wide powers. The judge could choose to take into consideration a previous conviction that even exceeds thet ten years or not. It’s all a matter of the judge’s discretion, Rampersad said. Brooks concurred with what Rampersad submitted. The Court accepted the submission. When the matter was called, Brooks informed the Court he could not find any arguable ground of appeal. The facts of the case was that on September 2, 2000, a young woman was waiting on her boyfriend in a car park at a Princes Town plaza about 8.30 pm when she saw Forbes whom she had met some six months before. She told him she had come to meet her boyfriend.

Forbes promised to help her look for her boyfriend and escorted her to a bar on Market Street where her boyfriend usually limed. The boyfriend was not there and Forbes told her he knew where her boyfriend lived and would take her there. They boarded a taxi and after travelling for a while alighted. As they walked along a street, Forbes placed his hand around the girl’s neck and dragged her into a house, where he raped her. Forbes was found guilty on May 16, 2002 and sentenced to 12 years by Justice Rajendra Narine at the San Fernando Assizes. In passing sentence the judge said he was not taking into consideration two previous convictions Forbes had in 1990 for robbery with aggravation and malicious wounding.