Four months after he initially appeared in court, Davino Shakell Howard has admitted animal cruelty to the dog named Sparky. Watched by officials of the Animal Control Centre and members of the group Be Their Voice, Howard, 28, of Bullens Avenue, Dalkeith Road, St Michael, changed his plea and admitted to wantonly ill-treating and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal – a dog – on September 13, 2022. Attorney Lalu …
Government would be sending the “wrong message” if it chooses to appeal a recent court decision to award a man who was wrongly imprisoned for a decade close to $2 million.That is the view of attorney-at-law, King’s Counsel Larry Smith, who has called on the State to pay Frank Gibson the monies owed him.“Should the State consider appealing this award, my concern would be the message sent to us as a society about the State’s willingness to go for the jugular of a poor, innocent, black man who has endured great suffering at the State’s own hands. Throughout, there has been this sense of an old colonial authoritarian system saying, innocent or not, you cannot win,” the lawyer said.His comments have come following last week’s decision by Justice Pamela Beckles to award Gibson $1.8 million in damages after she agreed that his constitutional rights were breached.
The year 2022 was one of landmark judicial cases.
It started with the constitutional challenge to the snap general election called by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, two years before it was constitutionally due. The action brought by attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman on behalf of Philip Catlyn, challenged Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s decision to call the election while the COVID-19 pandemic was raging.
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A man in his 40s was slapped with a 16-year sentence for raping and committing an act of serious indecency on his seven-year-old stepdaughter almost a decade ago, which a High Court judge said was an abuse of trust.However, after deductions allowed by Madame Justice Pamela Beckles, he will only serve just over half that time – eight years and 331 days – behind bars.He had been found guilty of committing the crimes against the minor between May 1 and June 30, 2013. He was, however, found not guilty of buggering her.In passing sentence on the man in the No. 5 Supreme Court on Monday, Justice Beckles told him that while he should have been “protecting the girl from danger”, he instead abused her trust.
A man who raped his girlfriend’s seven-year-old daughter and committed an act of serious indecency on her should be given a jail sentence in the region of 20 years in prison, says Acting Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Krystal Delaney.But the convicted man’s attorney Lalu Hanuman has urged the High Court not to go over the threshold of 15 years in jail in sentencing his client.The prosecutor and defense lawyer were addressing Madam Justice Pamela Beckles on Wednesday in the case of the step-father who was recently convicted of the offences by a jury in the No. 5 Supreme Court.The offences were committed between May 1 and June 30, 2013 when he was in his late 30s.Delaney submitted to the court that the custodial sentence for such offences had been exceeded as she pointed out the aggravating features of the stepfather’s crimes.