-Judge bemoans mistreatment of womenfolk
Justice Brassington Reynolds in imposing a six-year custodial sentence on convicted wife shooter, Krishna Ticadari, observed that he is a victim of the absentee father phenomenon that is plaguing the country.
“However, that being said, it is no excuse for the act committed on Old Year’s Day in 2004. You needed some guidance, some template from which you can judge manliness and grasp some understanding of how men should treat womenfolk.”
Directing his comments to the man in the dock, Justice Brassington said, “It is a tragedy … at all levels, there are grave instances of mistreatment of the womenfolk … this is a bad season for that.”
The judge, presiding at the Berbice Assizes, told the prisoner who was convicted by the jury on January 12 and whose sentence was postponed pending a probation officer’s report, that while he appeared penitent, consideration was taken into account that a medical certificate was not issued in favour of the victim in the trial.
However the judge noted that from his limited observation the victim, Roopwattie Teijnarine, had not suffered any permanent disfigurement and appeared to be in reasonably good health.
“I am sending you away, and another young child will be deprived from the presence of a father ….you could not be exonerated from your acts of Old Year’s Night. Clearly you are a man overtaken by passion. It will be good if you can reflect on the error of your ways, be a counsel for yourself so that when you return to society you will be the kind of father and husband the community would be proud of.”
At the commencement of the trial on December 16 last, State Counsel Fabayo Azore in her address to the jury had stated that on December 31, 2004, at about 9.30 pm the virtual complainant was at the house of a cousin having dinner on the verandah when she looked across the street where she saw the accused with whom she shared a common-law relationship for four years. He was armed with a gun which was pointed in her direction.
The prosecution said that as the complainant attempted to return into the house she heard a gunshot and felt a burning in the region of her back, from where blood flowed.
State Counsel Azore told the judge and the mixed jury that Taijnarine regained consciousness after being taken first to the Skeldon Hospital and then the New Amsterdam Hospital where she remained a patient for seven days.
Ticadari was indicted on two counts of discharging a loaded firearm and wounding with intent. On each count he was sentenced to three years which will run concurrently.
Earlier yesterday, Senior Probation and Social Welfare
Officer Forbes Munroe in a detailed report on the prisoner’s background noted that Ticadari had a harsh childhood and had suffered the pain of witnessing his father abuse his mother in addition to deserting and neglecting the family. As a result early in his childhood he had to take on the adult responsibility of securing provision for the family since his mother did not work. This caused him to lose out on educational opportunities appropriate for his development and good social conduct, the report added.
Munroe also observed that like so many others, Ticadari is a victim of fathers who failed to understand and execute with consideration their obligations to those children for whom they are responsible both legally and morally.
However, the welfare officer concluded that corrective measures must be applied where and when necessary in an effort to arrest all forms of social disorder and perpetrators of such disorder should be made to learn socially acceptable forms of behaviours.
Ticadari who had worked as a labourer in the rice industry is at present legally married to an 18-year-old woman who is now seven months pregnant with his child.
