Following complaints from defence attorney Glenn Hanoman of vital missing notes of evidence in the appeal filed by Michael Abrams to his conviction for raping and sodomizing a young girl, the Guyana Court of Appeal has ordered the prosecution to make efforts at retrieving the apparent missing pieces.
Acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud who are presiding over the matter, have all indicated that the intended appeal will proceed no further until the records are in order.
When the case was called yesterday morning, Hanoman was adamant that there had to be missing pieces from the records because of the clear gaps which exist.
Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Diana Kaulesar-O’Brien conceded that there seem indeed to be pieces missing.
Hanoman contended that without the complete record, the prosecution of his client’s appeal would be severely hampered while adding that it would be unfair and prejudicial to him.
He highlight that information was missing from the voir dire, the evidence-in-chief of the virtual complainant, as well as bits from cross-examination exercises and the trial judge’s summation to the jury.
He also took issue with the competency hearing which was conducted to determine the then six-year-old girl’s ability to testify.
Following Hanoman’s address, Chancellor Cummings-Edwards said that in the interest of justice and fairness, an opportunity must be given to retrieve the apparent missing documents, before the Court proceeds any further.
In those circumstances, the matter was adjourned for the state to communicate to the Court within the next 21 days, any progress in locating the files. Thereafter, a date will be announced as to when the case will be called again.
Back in 2017, Abrams was sentenced to two life sentences after a jury convicted him of raping and sodomizing an eight-year-old girl.
Abrams who began abusing the child at the age of six argues in his notice of appeal that not only was his verdict “unreasonable,” but that the sentence imposed against him was “manifestly excessive.”
He wants the Court to set aside his conviction and sentence.
He argues among other things that the trial judge failed to put his defence to the jury “fairly and /or adequately or at all” which he says resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
Abrams wants the appellate court to reserve and/or set aside the jury’s verdict and for his conviction and sentence to be quashed and set aside.
Abrams had been unanimously convicted on two counts of the rape of a child under the age of 16.
He first sexually penetrated the young girl, sometime between January 1, 2013 and January 19, 2016.
On the latter date, he was again found to have sexually molested the child whom he sodomized.
