Delon Chapman, one of the two ex-police constables recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping a woman who had gone to the Turkeyen Police Station to make a report, is appealing both his conviction and sentence.
Chapman is arguing through his attorney, Stanley Moore, that his conviction was “unfair and unlawful,” having regard to the law and evidence presented at his trial.
A date will eventually be given for the hearing of the appeal.
A jury in October unanimously convicted both men of sexually penetrating the woman without her consent on January 1st, 2018.
At sentencing, Justice Jo-Ann Barlow underscored their disregard in upholding the law and the Guyana Police Force’s motto “to serve and protect.”
Highlighted by the judge also, was the convicts’ lack of remorse even in the face of the verdict rendered by their peers and their desire to shift blame to others.
In arriving at the sentence, the judge said among other things that the manner and circumstances under which the assault was carried out, coupled with the fact that the perpetrators were police officers and had gone further to threaten to kill the woman if she spoke out, all amounted to aggravating factors.
Justice Barlow added to that list, too, the fear and anxiety by which she said the victim is still troubled, as indicated by her impact statement.
The prosecution’s facts were that the woman had gone to the Turkeyen Station on the day in question and lodged a report with policeman “Keizer” about an individual who had thrown a squib at her son.
Before leaving the station, the woman asked to use the washroom and Keizer called Chapman who the court heard guided her to the upper flat of the building where a toilet was located.
The woman had told the court that after she was finished using the washroom, Chapman grabbed her by the neck and he and Ashby took her into a room, threw her on a bed and they took turns raping her.
She said she tried to scream but could not because she was restrained by the men.
The court had heard from the woman that after the approximately 30-minute-long ordeal, she ran into the station and screamed “rape,” and told Keizer what had happened to her but he refused to take her report; and instead instructed Chapman and Ashby to “take [her] away” stating that she could “not make two reports at once.”
The woman would then go on to relate her refusal to go with the men who had moments before attacked and assaulted her but that they nonetheless pulled her by her hand and pushed her into the back passenger seat of a vehicle while they sat in front.
From there she said they set out in search of the man who had thrown the squib at her son. The court had heard from the woman that it was that very man to whom she complained of being raped by the two policemen.
She said that she then told her husband what had happened to her and he took her back to the Turkeyen Station, where she said Keizer again refused to take her report.
The woman said it was not until she had stripped her clothing out of frustration, that her report of having been raped was eventually taken.
