One of the Barama workers on trial for the 2007 rape and sodomy of a 17-year-old girl was yesterday found guilty of buggery and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Two other men were charged in the matter which occurred at the company’s Land of Canaan plywood plant, and one was jailed for four years for indecent assault while the third accused was found not guilty.
Paul Abrams, Claude Craig and Holston Melville called ‘Pumpkin,’ were accused of taking turns raping and sodomizing the girl who was 17-years-old at the time. The incident was said to have taken place on December 5, 2007.
Last week, Stabroek News was made to understand that the charge of rape against the number two accused Craig was withdrawn after the prosecution conceded that it could not stand. Nevertheless, he was still answerable to the charges of buggery and indecent assault.
Yesterday, Justice Jo Ann Barlow sentenced him to four years in prison on the indecent assault charge.
The number one accused, Abrams, was found not guilty of rape but guilty of buggery and indecent assault and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment on the buggery charge and 4 years for the indecent assault. The sentences will run concurrently.
Melville, the number three accused, was found not guilty of the charges.
It was the prosecution’s case that Abrams, a supervisor at the time, had lured the woman to a room where he proceeded to rape and sodomize her. He reportedly then locked the young woman in the room and later returned in the company of Melville who also proceeded to rape and sodomize her. After some time elapsed, the two men left the room, locking the woman in, once more; it was then Craig reportedly entered and sodomized the woman.
Attorney Nigel Hughes represented Melville while Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos appeared on behalf of Craig and Abrams. The case was presented by prosecutor Siand Dhurjon in association with Shawnette Austin.
