12 December

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From 30 strokes to 20

by Curtis WilliamsTHE COURT OF Appeal yesterday reduced from 30 to 20 the number of strokes Benjamin de Freitas would receive with the cat-o’-nine tails. The court upheld a submission from his attorney Martin George that the trial judge exceeded the statutory limit of strokes that a person could receive. The Court of Appeal comprising Justices Sat Sharma, Mustapha Ibrahim and Jean Permanand reduced the sentence but confirmed the conviction. George had applied to the court for leave to withdraw his appeal against the conviction. De Freitas was sentenced in February 1992 to 30 strokes and 29 years in prison by...

12 December

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20 years for rapist

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by Theron BoodanTO BE RAPED by a friend is more traumatic and atrocious than to be raped by a total stranger. This was the view of Justice Melville Baird, when he sentenced Dion Julien to 20 years hard labour yesterday, for raping a female friend while she was unconscious. Julien, 30, an electrician of Morne Coco Road, Maraval, was found guilty of raping an executive assistant of a city firm, during the early morning hours of June 5 1988, at Carenage. The woman who knew Julien very well had asked him to take her home after a party, a mere two minutes walk. On...

12 December

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‘Escort’ gets 20 years for raping woman

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by Nicola Ghouralal March 27, 1996DION JULIEN lowered his head as Justice Melville Baird yesterday sentenced him to 20 years hard labour for the rape of a young woman, whom he had known for six years. Julien was found guilty of raping the woman while he was escorting her to her home from a party at a Carenage cricket club on June 5, 1988. The woman said she stopped off in the course of the two-minute walk to her home to use someone's bathroom and that Julien came up and raped her. During the incident, the woman passed out. She said...

11 December

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Man found guilty of raping unconscious woman

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AN ELECTRICIAN who raped an executive assistant of a City firm while she was unconscious, will know his fate today. Dion Julien, 29, of Morne Coco Road, Maraval, was found guilty yesterday of raping the woman during the wee hours of June 5, 1988. After listening to a plea in mitigation by attorney Martin George, Justice Melville Baird, remanded Julien in custody for sentencing today. The State prosecutor was Geoffrey Henderson. The Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal court heard how the young female executive was at a party in Carenage, when she decided to go home in the early hours of the morning. She asked Julien...

11 December

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CARENAGE MAN GUILTY OF RAPE

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by Curtis Williams DION JULIEN, 30, of Constabulary Street, Carenage, was yesterday found guilty of the 1988 rape of an executive assistant. Julien wept openly in Port of Spain Fourth Criminal Court as the nine-member jury comprising four women and five men returned the verdict. The Jury took three hours to arrive at the guilty verdict. They had returned to the court after two and a half hours and said they could not reach a unanimous verdict but were asked to return to the jury room and come to a decision. The State's case was that on June 5, 1988, Julien and the young...

11 December

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Man found guilty of rape weeps in court

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A CARENAGE man wept after being found guilty of raping a young woman yesterday. He will be sentenced today. Dion Julien, 30, was found guilty of raping the woman on June 5, 1988, after he agreed to walk her home from a party at a cricket club on Beard Street, Carenage. State attorney, Geoffrey Henderson, told the Fourth Criminal Court that the victim, an executive assistant at a Port-of-Spain firm, asked Julien to walk her to her home which was two minutes away from the club. As they walked, the woman told Julien that she wanted to relieve herself and...

11 December

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TT justice system can speed up appeals – CJ

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CHIEF JUSTICE, Michael de Ia Bastide, told the Court of Appeal yesterday that the justice system of Trinidad and Tobago is capable of speeding up the hearing of appeals. The Chief Justice highlighted this yesterday when a 1996 conviction and sentence came up for appeal in the court. Dion Julien, who was convicted of rape in March 1996, appealed his conviction and sentence, had his conviction upheld, but his 20- year sentence was reduced to 10 years. The Court of Appeal comprising Chief Justice Michael de Ia Bastide and Justices Roger Hamel-Smith and Lloyd Gopeesingh, reduced the sentence of Julien, 23, after...

11 December

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Rapist’s sentence cut in half

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AN ELECTRICIAN who was sentenced to 20 years hard labour for raping a female executive assistant, had his sentence cut in half by the Court of Appeal yesterday. The case also took the shortest, record breaking period of time-three months and three weeks- to reach the Court of Appeal, be heard and determined. The Court of Appeal comprising Chief Justice Michael de Ia Bastide, Justice Roger Hamel- Smith and Justice Lloyd Gopeesingh, agreed that the 20 year sentence imposed on Dion Julien, 31 of Carenage, should be reduced to 10 years. Noting that this trial ended on March 25, 1996, and the appeal...

11 December

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Dramatic, historic court decision over kid’s blood

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Friday 16th February, 1996 IN AN unprecedented landmark decision, a High Court judge has ruled that a Tobago man is not the biological father of a child borne by his wife during their marriage. The dramatic judgment by Justice Shaffei Shah was made in favour of NeviIle Joseph, a professional printer, against his former wife, Ursula Joseph, of Easterfield Road, Mason Hall. Before making his historic decision, the judge carefully considered the sworn affidavits of both parties and two respected doctors and a report from another. Justice Shah declared that the plaintiff Neville Joseph is not the biological father of the...

10 December

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Robbery exhibits lost in 1990 coup

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SEVERAL exhibits in the Republic Bank San Juan branch robbery trial were destroyed by fire during the 1990 Muslimeen assault on Police Headquarters. This was the word coming yesterday from State prosecutor Geoffry Henderson when he indicated to the court that a videotape from the bank's security camera which had been tendered in evidence at the Magistrates Court, bad been destroyed in the attempted coup. Earlier in the trial, State witness Savitri Chuleung, a senior treasury officer at the bank, told the court that when she was kidnapped from her home and being taken to the bank, her kidnappers told her that...

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