Thirty-eight-year-old former taxi-driver Thurston Semple, has been sentenced to 11 years behind bars for brutally raping and beating a sex worker back in February of last year.
He was convicted by a jury just over three months ago after a trial at the High Court.
His sentencing had been initially deferred to facilitate the presentation of probation and psychological reports and an impact statement from the victim.
It, however, was further deferred owing to a request from defence attorney Everton Singh-Lammy that apart from being psychologically assessed, his client be evaluated by a psychiatrist also.
In a very vociferous protest of his innocence yesterday when given a chance to speak, Semple embarked on an oration of all he said the case did not prove against him, at the end of which he sought to fire his lawyer and challenged the psychiatry report presented on him.
Taking direct aim at Forensic Psychiatrist Dr. Meenawattie Rajkumar whom he accused of being dismissive and arrogant towards him, Semple described the less than 10 minutes which he said he spent in the doctor’s office, as being wholly inadequate for her to have evaluated him and arrived at the conclusions she did regarding his mental state, which he said was inaccurate.
“As personality traits, manipulation stands out,” Dr. Rajkumar told the court, while adding that Semple “portrays an angry temperament, has an extremely high self-esteem and doesn’t recognize his mistakes.”
She said she also found signs of “impulsive aggression” and that he has shown no sign of remorse for his action, but instead provided a detailed explanation of the offence; and in fact “presents himself as a victim and blames third parties.”
According to the convict he was simply annoyed, because he was being accused of an offence he did not commit, while contending that he is afflicted by none of the mental issues to which the Doctor alluded in her report.
Dr. Rajkumar diagnosed Semple with “Antisocial Personality Disorder” stating that there was detected “no signs of mental illness that transcended his psychological capacities at levels of criminal interest.”
From the diagnosis, she described the offender as “an entity that is clinically characterized by tendency to disregard between right and wrong, arrogance, a sense of superiority and being extremely opinionated, recurring problems with the law, including criminal behaviour and repeatedly violating the right of others through intimidation and dishonesty.”
The Doctor told the court she does not recommend continuous psychiatric attention and that Semple was allowed to leave without any medication.
Given all her observations reflected in the report, however, Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry enquired from the Psychiatrist whether treatment of some sort would not be necessary, to at least respond to Semple’s personality disorder.
Rajkumar said that that disorder could not be cured and remained adamant that no treatment intervention was necessary.
Justice Sewnarine-Beharry nonetheless ordered that the convict be exposed to counselling in prison for the entire duration of his sentence.
Accusing the doctor of being arrogant, Semple said that all she was interested in, in the about five minutes he spent in her office, was his name and age and a few other pieces of basic information about him.
He said that he was angry that he was accused of something he did not do and also at hearing the doctor’s report which he said contained “lies,” even as he questioned the depth of her analysis in the short space of time in which he said she attempted to evaluate him.
He disputed that Dr. Rajkumar could provide any detailed report in what he said was “that short space of time.”
According to him, he has been suffering in prison; and it was at this point that he then turned his attention to his lawyer whom he sought to advance had not done a good job at representing his interest, stating that he no longer wanted Singh-Lammy to represent him.
Recounting what she described as the harrowing assault unleashed upon her by Semple whom she said was a client, the court had heard from the impact statement of the victim who is not of Guyanese nationality, that she had journeyed to these shores to make a better life for her three children whom she left behind in her home country.
She said that she earned her income as a sex worker to support her family back home, but that the brutal rape and savage beating she suffered at the hands of the now-convicted Semple, changed her life forever.
According to the statement of the 31-year-old which was read by her therapist, while her many physical external injuries have since healed , her mind has been badly damaged, noting that since the ordeal she no longer sleeps well, suffers nightmares and flashbacks and is in constant fear.
The statement revealed that any situation leads to the woman reliving the moment of the attack, which causes her to be filled with “anger, depression and hatred,” more so because the convict caused her to contract sexually transmitted infections.
“She said that she feels condemned, dead in life. Every day she cries a lot and sometimes takes refuge in alcohol and drugs to forget. She said that her life has no meaning,” the therapist read from the statement.
“I feel like I’m never going to get over this totally…it’s something that’s still hurting my mind…I cannot learn to forgive and forget” the statement went on to detail of the victim who described Semple as a “monster.”
By a majority verdict of 10 to 2, a jury on March 25th, found Semple guilty of raping the sex worker between February 24th and February 25th of last year.
He was also found guilty of assaulting the woman and causing her actual bodily harm. The verdict on the assault charge was unanimous.
Justice Sewnarine-Beharry said that after considering both the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the case, the Court thought that 11 years for the rape and four years for the physical assault were appropriate sentences.
She ordered that they are to be served concurrently, and that Semple be exposed to counselling.
In his call for a sentence of at least 17 years, Prosecutor Muntaz Ali had reflected on what he had described as the brutal and savage nature of the attack meted out to the complainant.
Singh-Lammy when called upon to mitigate on the offender’s behalf, reminded that Semple no longer wanted his representation. Justice Sewnarine-Beharry, however, cautioned counsel that he had a duty to the Court and his client.
In mitigation, Singh-Lammy then advanced that Semple had been described in the probation and prison reports as a model prisoner, that he was still relatively young, and that there is no likelihood of recidivism.
Meanwhile, describing him as “not normal,” the lawyer particularly echoed the Court’s sentiments for Semple to have some form of intervention to deal with the personality disorder by which he is plagued.
The trial proceedings were held in-camera at the Sexual Offences Court of the High Court in Demerara.
Semple is currently awaiting trial on other rape charges.
