Sixty-three-year-old Gregory Ramkissoon who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for causing a four-year-old girl to perform oral sex on him, has filed an appeal before the appellate court, arguing that his sentence is severe.
He argues in his grounds of appeal that the trial judge erred in law by failing to consider that the offence included what he said were “lesser encompassing offences” for which he had previously been convicted in the Magistrates Court and served time.
Consequently, he said that the judge erred in law by failing to consider whether he could benefit “from an expanded version of the autrefois convict plea or whether she could exercise her discretion to stay proceedings or impose a less severe sentence.”
According to The Law Dictionary, Featuring Black’s Law Dictionary Free Online Legal Dictionary 2nd Ed. autrefois convict is “a plea by a criminal in bar to an indictment that he has been formerly convicted of the same identical crime.”
Further, he argued that in passing sentence, the judge failed to explore the possibility of ordering a probation report “and to take other relevant factors into consideration.”
Ramkissoon (the appellant), complained, too, that attorney Ravindra Mohabir who represented him in the High Court, failed to adequately mitigate the sentence imposed. In his appeal he is being represented by defence attorney Glenn Hanoman.
The offender has said in his notice of appeal that he intends to raise additional grounds when his matter comes up for hearing.
Earlier this month, Ramkissoon called ‘Skeage,’ appeared before the Sexual Offences Court in Georgetown and pleaded guilty to forcing the child to fellate him on January 4th, 2016.
Prior to passing sentence, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall, who presided over the case noted that she had considered both the nature and gravity of the offence, and the tender age of the child “who has forever lost her innocence.”
The judge underscored that it was a gross act of oral penetration, while informing Ramkissoon that the offence of rape which he committed, carries a maximum term of imprisonment for life.
She, however, commenced the sentence at 35 years. Therefrom, deductions were made for the offender’s guilty plea, after which she informed him that he would be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The judge further ordered that Ramkissoon spends 15 full years behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.
