State accepts manslaughter plea

THE STATE has accepted a 23-year-old man’s guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter. the accused was originally charged with murdering his one-year-old stepson. Ashram Bajnath will know his punishment when he returns to the San Fernando High Court before Justice Joan Charles on July 28.

Yesterday, in making a plea for leniency, Bajnath’s attorney Ainsley Lucky told the court the accused suffered from periodic fits of anger. Lucky explained to Justice Charles that Bajnath became depressed over money problems.

Bajnath, 23, of Carli Bay, Couva, pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter last Friday in the San Fernando Second Assize Court. Justice Charles has ordered a Probation Officer’s report to guide her in on what type of punishment to give the accused.

According to the State’s case, Bajnath was living in a common-law relationship with Natasha Sacrool, 25, who left her one-year-old son Avinash in Bajnath’s care, when she left for work. On December 7, 2001, when Sacrool returned home from work, Bajnath told her Avinash was dead. The woman took the infant to Couva District Health Facility where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

State Prosecutor Angelica Teelucksingh, told Justice Charles an autopsy carried out by pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes showed the child died from bleeding in the brain which was caused by multiple blunt force injuries. Teeluckingh further told the court the forensic examination showed bruises on the child’s chin and neck, consistent with the application of strangulated-type force to the neck.

The child also had several fractured ribs. The State Attorney said Bajnath first told police in a statement, the child fell from a hammock.

However, she added, pathologist Des Vignes stated the fractures could not have been caused by a fall of three feet or less.

Lucky told Justice Charles that Bajnath was remorseful over the incident, one which would torment him for the rest of his life. Teelucksingh submitted that the circumstances of the case was not rare and exceptional and did not merit a non-custodial sentence or bond.