Omar Bacchus, who had been on remand for eight years, was last week sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by Justice Brassington Reynolds over the beating to death of Chandradat Hemraj at Bloomfield Village, Berbice in 2008.
The judge had earlier listened to a probation report on the prisoner’s background and a plea in mitigation at the Berbice Assizes.
Bacchus had spent almost eight years at the New Amster-dam Prison awaiting trial and Defence Counsel Perry Gossai said it was a breach of his client’s constitutional right to a fair trial in a reasonable time.
“But it was poverty that kept him behind bars. Though poverty should not be considered as a crime. It’s such poverty that disallowed family members from being present at today’s hearing, although he has been incarcerated for eight years. They cannot afford the transportation cost. They live in a poverty-stricken home. Their yard is flooded and they use latrine in these advanced years,” the lawyer said.
The lawyer lamented the fact that his client was a victim of a system which failed him, as he was incarcerated for eight years yet after all those years he did not know to read nor write.
Senior Probation Officer Claudia Munroe reported that Bacchus stopped attending the Auchlyne Primary School at age nine years and worked as a labourer gathering watermelons, fishing in the savannahs and subsequently as a cane harvester.
Addressing the prisoner, Justice Reynolds, referred to his alias, ‘Batty Shine’ and said it “reflects on our plight as a nation… It tells a story of your life… It is not normal for us as citizens to refer to another as ‘Batty Shine.’ It speaks. It tells a story of what your life is situated in … I recognize that after eight years you have elected to plead guilty to the lesser count …. Our constitution refers to a fair trial within a reasonable time. However, a life is lost and the Court must take the facts offered by the state.
“I have considered your age. I have noted that you have been a victim of your environment. It’s unfortunate that after eight years [in prison] you cannot read and write. Initially, I considered between 15 to 25 years. I have deducted five years for your willingness, eight years for the time spent incarcerated, and a year for your age, resulting in seven years imprisonment.
Diring the trial, Sattie Nathoo had testified that she was at her Lot 65 Bloomfield Village home, when she heard a ‘beating’ sound at about 2300 hrs. She turned on her electric light, and ventured on her verandah where she saw Bacchus beating Hemraj with a picket.
“I asked him what he beating the man fa, and he responded, `shut you mouth, go in your house and turn off you light,’” she related.
The following day, Nathoo saw blood stains in front of the accused’s bridge. The very place she had seen him beating the now deceased.
A post-mortem examination conducted by Government forensic pathologist Dr Vivikanand Brijmohan, recorded the death as a result of asphyxia, drowning and multiple injuries.
Hemraj was a father of three who had become estranged from his family as a result of alcohol dependence.
