Stating that the Guyana Court of Appeal failed in applying binding precedent when it affirmed the 23 years imposed on convicted rapist Calvin Ramcharran, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has reduced his sentence to 12 years.
“The evidential deficits and procedural shortcomings, taken together with the failure to follow the sentencing approach explained by the majority in Pompey, resulted in a sentencing hearing that was flawed and has arguably not met the threshold standards to constitute a fair hearing that could produce a fit proportionate and just sentence,” the CCJ said in its ruling yesterday.
By a majority of 11 to 1, a jury back in 2015 had found Ramcharran guilty as charged of the 2012 rape of a woman, who he had also viciously beaten during the act.