The sentencing of Anthony De Paul Hope and Ralph Tyndall, the two men found guilty of murdering caretaker Colleen Forrester and dumping her body in a septic tank, has been deferred until probation reports on the men are presented.
Last Friday, a jury had found Hope and Tyndall guilty of murdering Forrester between December 26th, 2007 and January 6th, 2008. Her body was found stuffed in the septic tank of the William Street residence for which she had been caretaker.
At what was supposed to be the sentencing hearing yon Tuesday, Hope’s lawyer Melville Duke made an application for a probation report to be prepared for his client.
However, State Attorney Diana Kaulesar argued that Hope and Tyndall have been convicted of a gruesome murder and, therefore, a probation report, favourable or not, could have very little impact on the sentence.
She further stated that the sentence handed down by the judge should reflect that of the crime committed.
Although she granted the application for the probation report, Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire explained that she is only doing so to facilitate Tyndall’s lawyer Madan Kissoon, who was not present to offer mitigation on behalf of his client. Justice George-Wiltshire also made it clear that if the reports are not completed by July 15th, she would be prepared to hand down her sentence without it.
The judge further reminded Duke that his client was indeed found guilty of a “gruesome murder” and added that what they did was comparable to “desecration of the dead” by disposing Forrester’s body in the septic tank.
Additionally, in the interest of justice and the fact that Hope was the nephew of the deceased, Justice George-Wiltshire ordered that an impact statement be prepared to find out how Forrester’s murder has affected her immediate relatives. She also reminded Duke that she has to look at the case from the family’s point of view as well, before adding that she has not yet taken the death penalty off of the table as a possible sentence.
Hope and Tyndall are expected to know their fate when the case is recalled on July 15th at the High Court.
