Court dismisses appeal filed by man convicted of rape, assault

Guyana’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed the appeal filed by Calvin Ramcharran, who is currently serving 23 years imprisonment for the rape and assault of a woman.

Ramcharran had moved to the Appeal Court, challenging his conviction and the severity of his sentence. The appeal was heard by Chancellor (ag), Yonette Cummings-Edwards; Justice Dawn Gregory and, Justice Rishi Persaud.

The State was represented by the prosecutor, Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dionne McCammon while Ramcharran was represented by attorney-at-law, Nigel Hughes and associates Ronald Daniels and Sophia Findlay.

The Chancellor, who delivered the ruling, said that the court did not find that the trial judge erred in law and so the appeal was dismissed. In 2015, a 12-member jury found Ramcharran guilty for the rape and brutal assault that was committed on an adult female during a party at Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, on July 22, 2012.

The first charge stated that on July 22, 2012, Ramcharran engaged in sexual penetration of an adult female without her consent. The second charge is that on the same date, he assaulted the young woman, causing her actual bodily harm.

Trial judge, Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, sentenced him to serve 23 years for the rape and four years for the assault charge. During the trial, it was revealed that the young lady left her friends to go and urinate during which Ramcharran followed her and asked if she was “doing business”.

The woman responded in the negative after which Ramcharran struck her in the head with a bottle, dragged her to the back of a building and raped her.