Trinidad Express, Port of Spain, 7 November 1997

Judge almost pukes at rape evidence

AN APPEAL Court judge said that he almost puked after reading the evidence of the rape, buggery and indecent assault of a teenage student by four teenagers in 1989.

Justice of Appeal Mustapha Ibrahim said it was one of the worst cases he had to deal with, adding that the acts of the four men were the worst acts of savagery in human form. "Not even animals behave like that," he said.

The comments were made on Wednesday before the court, which also comprised Justices Roger Hamel-Smith and Jean Permanand, affirmed sentences which totalled 22 years each on Michael Fernandez, 30; Simon Marryshow, 24; Anthony Cagan, 24 and Hugh Adams, 25. Marryshow and Cagan were 16 at the time of the offences.

The court also ordered that the sentences begin from Wednesday, which effectively added ten months to the sentences.

Justice Stanley John passed the original sentences on January 28 and also ordered that each rapist receive ten strokes with the birch. The four had been found guilty of seven offences, including kidnapping, rape, buggery, serious indecency, indecent assault and robbery.

The 15-year-old female victim was raped, buggered and forced to perform oral sex on the four men on October 2, 1989 in Caura. Her boyfriend, a 17-year-old student, was robbed.

Victor Nunez, Martin George (who appeared with Ronald Boynes), Atta Kujufi and Ken Wright urged the court to reduce the men's sentences, but their requests were refused.

Justice Ibrahim said the court had the power to increase the sentences but took into consideration the pleas in mitigation from the attorneys and the ages of the men at the time of the offences. He said there were no other sexual offences the men could have performed on the girl, adding that he did not know how she survived the ordeal.

"It appears the younger the age group the more savage their behaviour. Every day you pick up a newspaper and you read about rape," he said.

Deputy DPP Rangee Dolsingh described the sexual attack as one of "Olympic proportions".

The court heard that the victims went to the cinema and were walking along the Eastern Main Road looking for transport around 12.30 a.m. on October 2, 1989 when a white Laser pulled alongside them.

Three of the men, armed with a cutlass, Chinese chopper and a gun, alighted from the car and forced the couple into the car. Before taking them to Caura, the boyfriend was robbed. They later raped, buggered and performed indecent acts on the girl.

In their defence the men claimed they were never on the scene.-FW

Trinidad Express, Port of Spain, 11 November 1997

Ten years, 8 strokes for assaulting infant

DARREN "Doggy" Scott, who confessed to raping the five-year-old daughter of his good friend in 1994, was jailed for ten years and ordered to receive eight strokes with the birch yesterday. Before passing her first sentence as a judge, Alice Soo Hon, presiding in the Port of Spain Fourth Criminal Court, told 24-year-old Scott of Toco that he had betrayed the trust of his friend who had left him in the house with the victim and his other children.

"In less than one hour you committed this terrible act against the infant," the judge said, adding that little did the parents know that their hospitality would turn to horror.

She said she agreed with the sentiments expressed by Scott's attorney, Ken Wright, who on Friday said that no amount of apology or sympathy could compensate the little girl for the trauma she suffered.

She told Scott that he was caught in the act and had no choice but to admit his guilt. The judge said she took into consideration Scott's guilty plea, the fact that he did not waste the court's time and did not put the victim and her family through the trauma of giving evidence. She also acknowledged that Scott had been in prison since July 19, 1994.

The judge, however, lamented that Scott was committed for sentencing in the High Court after he pleaded guilty to the offence in the magistrate's court on July 26, 1995, but was not brought before the court for sentencing until last Friday.

"It is most unsatisfactory that this took so long," she said. Justice Soo Hon noted that rape had become more prevalent in the society and the court had a duty to protect children.

On July 18, 1994, Scott was allowed to spend the night at the victim's home. The next day, the parents of the victim left their children in his care and went to work. When the mother of the child returned from her job and opened the bedroom door, she saw Scott on top her daughter. The mother screamed and Scott ran.

The mother confronted Scott with a cutlass and had to be restrained by a relative. He had told her: "I did not do your child nothing."

Later that day, Scott admitted to the child's father that he had raped his daughter. He was later charged by Const Neville Sankar whom he told: "Ah really do it. I ent know what make me do that."

On Friday, Scott said he needed psychiatric help. Ricky Rahim represented the State.