…hitherto good record prevented life sentence
CHAETRAM Singh, called “Monster”, is to serve 18 years in jail for the unlawful killing of his wife Ileen Lall, 40, because of what he called infidelity on the part of the woman……the mother of his five children.
The sentence was imposed yesterday by Justice Winston Patterson who, because of the nature of the case, had intended to impose life imprisonment.
But he imposed 18 years instead after taking into account a significant plea in mitigation by defence counsel Mr. Huckumchand and the convicted man’s hitherto clean criminal record.
Singh, a 45-year-old fisherman of Herstelling,  East Bank Demerara, had used, according to the Prosecution, a 12 inch kitchen knife to inflict  seven wounds  on the body of the woman, after his appeals to her to ‘come go home’ on February 6, 2007, were rejected.
It is said that Monster then ran away with the death weapon, leaving his wife dead in a crouching position at the home of a relative at Herstelling.
Earlier, neighbours had heard screams and one person said she heard the voice of the woman say ,“Ow Monster, me dead”. Later, screams from children attracted a crowd who saw Monster running away with bloody hands.
Witnesses said they saw blood flowing from the floor of a cottage to the yard. And when they entered the building above, they saw the woman, who appeared to be dead, crouching against the wall in a pool of blood.
The lone eye witness was a woman named Ruby who died before the Preliminary Inquiry, and so Prosecutors Mrs. Judith Gildharie-Mursalin and Miss Latchmie Rahamat resolved to prove the case by means of circumstantial evidence.
When the trial started in the High Court before the judge and jury, the accused pleaded not guilty and a jury was empanelled to try the case.
All went well until Monday afternoon when the son of the, Ramdatt Singh, 24, who could not have been located to give evidence, turned up and testified.
He testified that he was the eldest of five children. He said that his mother had left the father and was living in a room by Ruby’s house at 474 Back Street, Herstelling.
He said that about 4 o’ clock that day, he learnt that his mother was at Farm Squatting area by his mother-in-law. He went there and his mother told him something.  The mother was there with Anita Lall, his aunt. He left the mother in the house and was walking towards Herstelling when his father came up behind him and started running. Witness said that he told his father to go home and he went to the corner with some friends.
In a short while, he heard a loud screaming and commotion. He saw his father running from the direction of his mother’s house, coming towards him with a long object that appeared to be a 12 inch knife.
Witness said that he got up and ran away.
When asked by the Prosecutor why he ran away, witness said that he was afraid of being killed because his father used to talk about killing his mother and him and the other children.  Witness then learnt that his mother was stabbed. He went to the Police and then to his mother’s home where he saw his mother in a pool of blood.
Witness said that when the police saw his mother, they were not surprised, because she always made reports at the station against her husband who used to ill-treat her.
Following the son’s testimony, the accused spoke to his counsel and later there was the decision not to further waste the court’s time. The accused offered a plea of not guilty of murder but guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter. Justice Patterson accepted the plea.

In a confession statement to the police during the investigations, the accused had said he had liked his wife and children, but despite all that he was doing, “my wife was giving me blow”.
Defence counsel Hukumchand asked the Court to bear in mind the position of the accused who had loved his wife and children dearly. His wife was his only possession, and he urged the judge to conclude that the accused lost his self control when he found that he had lost his wife.
The judge, imposing a penalty of 18 years imprisonment, told the accused that he was now asking for mercy while he had failed to show mercy to his wife.
“You have sniffed away the life of your wife –the mother of your children”, the judge said.