The Guyana Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the conviction against a pastor for raping a minor but reduced his sentence.
Berbice Pastor, Andrew Hannibal, who was found guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl in 2016, saw his sentence reduced from 40 years to 25 after he argued that it was excessive.
Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Yonette Cummings-Edwards, who chaired the court’s proceedings, alongside Justices Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud, yesterday informed the convict that along with his reduced 25-year sentence, he is to serve 18 years before being eligible for parole.
Hannibal, who was the Founder and Pastor of the Faith Deliverance Ministries, was found guilty in the High Court before Justice Sandil Kissoon of the charge which read that between January 29th and 31st of 2016, in the County of Berbice, he engaged in sexual penetration with a child who was at the time 15 years old.
The convict who was represented by Senior Counsel Murseline Bacchus was initially sentenced to 40 years imprisonment and was ordered to serve 30 years before being considered for parole. As such, in his appeal he argued that the sentence was excessive and that there were discrepancies in the state’s case against him.
The state was yesterday represented by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Natasha Backer.
In relation to the discrepancies, the convict had argued that the virtual complainant (VC) and the other witnesses had given entirely different evidence such as the size of the bed where the sexual assault occurred, the layout of the room, and what furniture was present, along with the fence that the VC entered through.
In his other points of argument in his appeal, according to Chancellor Cummings-Edwards, Hannibal had contended that the state failed to present evidence on the facts that they provided to the court which stated that the virtual complainant had received a text message from him. The appellant argued that the state never proved that the text message came from him or that he was the person behind the message.
He also averred that he had endured an “unfair trial” due to the misuse of some words such as “rape”, “victim” and “virtual complainant”, which might have also misled the jury into obtaining the verdict that they did.
However, in response to this argument, Chancellor Cummings-Edwards noted that the trial judge had informed the jury of why such words were used and that the clarification had prevented any wrongful or incorrect verdict by the jury.
She also declared that, “no miscarriage of justice was carried out” and that the jury’s verdict was appropriate based on the evidence provided by the state. This was the basis upon which his appeal of the conviction was dismissed yesterday.
Moreover, as it relates to her findings on the appeal of his sentence, the Chancellor noted that due to the appellant being a first-time offender and due to him showing remorse to the victim’s family, his years shall be reduced, however he will still serve at least 18 years due to the trust that was reposed in him by the VC.
Between the dates mentioned, it was said that the girl had received a message from the pastor requesting to see her since he would usually counsel her. However, when she arrived at his residence, he forcefully pushed her onto the bed and sexually assaulted her.
