Thirty-year-old vendor Francis Gonzalves has been sentenced to 18 years behind bars for raping a woman back in 2018.
A jury on Tuesday found Gonzalves guilty in a proportion of 10-2 of sexually penetrating the woman without her consent, on March 27th, 2018.
In handing down the sentence yesterday morning, Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry who presided over the trial, said that the Court had considered both the physical and psychological trauma the victim has had to endure.
The judge noted, too, Gonzalves’ lack of remorse.
Referencing a number of other offences committed by the convict for which he is also serving time, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry said it illustrates his violent nature and disregard for the law.
In his brief address to the court following his conviction on Tuesday, Gonzalves expressed the view that he was not given a fair trial and had not gotten to speak to his attorney.
Defence attorney Ravindra Mohabir in a mitigating plea, however, had described his client as a model prisoner and express-ed the belief that if exposed to the correct programmes, he can be rehabilitated to make meaningful contributions in society.
For her part, Prosecutor Tiffini Lyken had informed that the convict was already behind bars serving sentences for break-and-enter and larceny, malicious damage to property, disorderly behaviour and breaching a protection order.
Lyken had also drawn the court’s attention to the convict not having showed any remorse—maintaining his innocence—despite the guilty verdict of his peers.
The trial proceedings were held in-camera at the Sexual Offences Court of the High Court at Suddie, Essequibo.
