Rapist Appeal

THE Judicial Committee of the Privy Council will on February 6, next year hear an appeal from a policeman against the local Court of Appeal increasing his sentence from 25 years to 30 years for rape. The policeman, now 50 years old, was sentenced by Justice Clebert Brooks in the San Fernando High Court in 1986 for raping a woman in the La Brea Police Station. He had appealed the conviction on the basis of law and facts, but the Appeal Court dismissed the appeal.

The appellate judges however, increased the sentence to 30 years. Attorney Alleyne Forte has appealed to the Privy Council the decision of the judges to increase the accused sentence on the ground that the judges ought not to have increase the penalty because the accused did not pursue his appeal on the ground of severity of sentence but on conviction. British lawyers Julien Knowles, instructed by Richard Stein, will argue the appeal before the lawlords when the matter comes up for hearing on February 6.