Paul Ivor Thom, who was found guilty of manslaughter at the High Court in Berbice earlier this month, was yesterday sentenced to six years imprisonment for the crime.
Thom, 47, a mason of Lot 16 A Williamsburg Village, Corentyne, was also sentenced to two years imprisonment on a charge of unlawful wounding but it will run concurrently with the manslaughter sentence. As time spent on remand counted towards the sentence, it means that Thom will spend the next four years in jail.
In August 2017, Thom was charged with murdering Vishram Mohabir, also known as “Ajai”, a mason of Lot 258 Williamsburg Village, Corentyne. Earlier this month, on September 5th, Thom was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
Thom was represented by attorney Surihya Sabsook in the High Court while the prosecution was represented by attorney Mandel Moore.
A probation report was read yesterday after which Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry sentenced Thom to spend six years in prison. Two years will be deducted from his sentence for the time he spent on remand.
Meanwhile, Thom yesterday also pleaded guilty to unlawfully wounding Mohabir’s young brother Kunal Singh. He was sentenced to two years in prison on that charge, which will run concurrently with his other sentence.
Mohabir, 19, was stabbed once in his neck on August 27, 2017, and succumbed at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital while receiving treatment for his injury.
Singh, who was 15 years old at the time, sustained several minor stab wounds on both arms and was also rushed to the hospital after the incident. He was treated for his injuries and subsequently released.
Singh, in an interview with Stabroek News in 2017, had stated that a car wash in the area held a ‘Back to School party’, which he attended with his brother and their neigh-bours. He had said that sometime after 3 am on the day the incident occurred, “Me deh walk a go house and drop me bicycle and then we walk go back fuh collect me buddy, (Mohabir) and the man been a sit down over the road, and then he run up just so to me and stab me.”
Singh added, “When he stab me, me call for me friend, and me buddy run and he stab me buddy in he neck.”
Singh had insisted that Thom had launched the attack after being involved in a heated argument with his neighbour.
However, other persons at the party had claimed that the brothers and neighbours were allegedly beating the accused which led to the stabbing.
