Sheldon Lynch who had been handed three life sentences back in 2018 for raping a 10-year-old girl on three separate occasions has approached the Guyana Court of Appeal to challenge his conviction and sentence.
In his notice of appeal filed before the Court, the former labourer argues among other things, that the judges who conducted his trials erred and “misdirected the jury on the law and elements of sexual conduct.”
His contention is that the judges “failed to adequately direct the jury on the law and requirement of the danger of relying on the unsworn testimony of a child.”
Back in March of 2018, Lynch was handed two consecutive life sentences, after the unanimous finding of guilt by a jury for the charge of rape of a child under 16 years.
Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall, had ordered that Lynch spend a minimum of 35 years on each conviction before being paroled.
Lynch was convicted of raping the child on two occasions—in December of 2010 and November of 2011—beginning when she was 10.
Four months later, another jury convicted Lynch of also raping the child on a third occasions. Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, imposed that third life sentence, ordering that it be served without the possibility of parole.
Lynch, (the Appellant), argues that the judges allowed inadmissible evidence at his trial, and “failed to put or to adequately and/or fairly put” his defence to the respective juries.
He said, too, that his attorney’s cross-examination of witnesses had been “unfairly restricted.”
He then complains that his sentences were “manifestly excessive.”
