28 years jail for man who killed girlfriend

A Mahaica, East Coast Demerara man was on Thursday sentenced to 28 years imprisonment after he admitted to killing his lover Hafeeza Rohoman, whose body was found floating in a canal at Helena, Mahaica in 2016.

Lakeram Harinarine known as ‘Ricky’ was sentenced by Justice Jo-Ann Barlow at the Georgetown High Court for manslaughter.

He was initially charged with the murder which occurred between January 7-10, 2016 but opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.

During Thursday’s hearing, Harinarine apologised to the court for his actions and begged for leniency.

The Judge set the sentence at 28 years and ordered that one third is deducted because of the guilty plea. Additionally, another year was deducted from the sentence given the fact that Harinarine was 23-years-old at the time and the victim was 28.

For his time spent on remand, the Judge deducted three years, 10 months and 24 days from his sentence.

The Judge also ordered that Harinarine is exposed to counselling while serving his sentence.

Harinarine and Rohoman were involved in a relationship and lived together after she ended a previous relationship with the father of her child. On January 6, 2016, Rohoman’s ex and their child went to the house and begged her to return home.

On January 7, 2016, Rohoman and Harinarine had an argument at the Helena burial ground because she wanted to end their relationship.

The court heard that Rohoman reportedly beat Harinarine with a bicycle bar after which he took the same bar and hit her to the head three times.

Harinarine then pushed her into a nearby canal and went home. Rohoman’s partially decomposed body was found three days later.

A post mortem revealed that she died from drowning and blunt trauma to the head.