Pomeroon resident Richard Mohammed, who a year ago chopped a woman, severing one of her arms, several of her fingers and causing her to lose an eye in the process, will be spending the next 14 years in prison.
Last month he pleaded guilty to attacking and chopping the woman with a cutlass on March 25th, 2021 with intent to maim, disfigure or disable her.
He had been indicted for attempted murder or felonious wounding in the alternative. He pleaded to the latter and Justice Jo-Ann Barlow deferred his sentencing for a probation report and impact statement from the victim.
Yesterday, the court heard from the complainant’s impact statement read by Prosecutor Tiffini Lyken, of the trauma she still faces because of the incident.
The woman described the attack as vicious from which she said she could have lost her life, adding that not only has she been left physically scarred and disabled for life, but that it has also had an impact on her mental health.
The statement said the ordeal has affected the woman’s ability to care for herself and children and lamented her inability to do simple things like comb either her or her daughter’s hair or care for her children as she should.
She spoke, too, of the impact on her family who has taken on the responsibility of supporting her financially as she is unable to work.
The court heard, too, that since Mohammed burnt the woman’s house down following the attack, she and her children have no stable place to live and would continually beg persons for lodging for as long as they can accommodate them.
“My children have to see me permanently disfigured and my life will never be the same again,” the statement quoted the woman as saying.
In his brief address to the court, Mohammed said he was “deeply sorry about everything that happened,” while stating that he should have controlled himself.
“Please forgive me,” he sought to ask the judge.
Meanwhile, his attorney George Thomas begged for clemency on his behalf, citing that he had no antecedents or history or violent behaviour and is amenable to rehabilitation.
The lawyer described his client as an “ardent Muslim,” whom he said was also “scarred by the memory of this entire dreadful incident.”
While acknowledging the seriousness and severity of the offence and the tremendous losses suffered by the complainant, Thomas said he could only beg the Court for mercy.
For her part, however, Prosecutor Lyken asked the Judge to consider that the offender had used a deadly weapon, that the incident was sparked from a domestic dispute from which associated violence was prevalent and the impact which she said the ordeal still continues to have on her life.
Justice Barlow said that having regard to all the circumstances—both aggravating and mitigating—19 years was an appropriate base.
Citing the aggravating circumstances, the judge noted that it stemmed from a domestic dispute, while noting that regard was also given to the weapon used on the woman who was unarmed and the multiple serious injuries inflicted on her.
The Judge said that weight was given to victim impact statement which she said related a tale of being condemned to a fate that some may consider worse than death; even as she underscored the mental anguish with which the woman continues to be haunted.
Justice Barlow said that she found no mitigating circumstances, stating that Mohammed’s inability to control himself at the time, would not suffice.
The Judge said she found a “wanton disregard for life and limb” of the complainant and a callous disregard for the wellbeing of the persons who lived in the house which he burnt.
On that point the Judge said she wished to register her concern that the State did not proceed with charges of arson against Mohammed.
From the 19 years, Justice Barlow deducted five years for his plea, but cautioned that he could not be awarded the full one-third discount for which the law provides, as he had not pleaded guilty at the first-given opportunity.
The Judge noted that the man had initially pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and protested his innocence.
His belated acceptance of responsibility she said, seemed only to have been tactical, given the strength of the evidence against him.
From the 14 years, however, the judge did order that the prison deduct the 42 days he had spent in custody before being granted bail in Magistrate’s Court.
She further ordered the prison authorities to ensure that the offender is provided counselling, tailored to the needs of a person convicted of violent offences.
The police had said that Mohammed, a labourer of Friendship, Lower Pomeroon River, and of Huntley Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara, attacked the woman in the Lower Pomeroon area, where he chopped her several times in the head and other parts of her body, severing an arm, several of her fingers and causing her to lose an eye.
After committing the act, he set the woman’s house ablaze.
Lyken had said that he surrendered himself immediately after and admitted to the crime.
