A MIXED jury yesterday found 46-year-old Mohan Lall, called ‘Uncle Lloydie’, guilty of statutory rape committed on a 12-year-old school girl. The verdict was 11 to one.
Presiding Judge, Justice Winston Patterson, sentenced the accused to 15 years.
State Prosecutor Mrs. Judith Gildharie-Mursalin, on Monday, created history when she addressed the jury, in spite of the fact that the defence lawyer, Miss Sonia Parag, elected not to do so. Miss Parag had contended that the prosecution had nothing to reply to but the Prosecutor invoked a 1980 Reference by the Court of Appeal of Guyana.
That court had agreed with the DPP in 1980 that Counsel for the State had a right of reply in the circumstances of the case, and that the question posted by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the reference would be answered in the affirmative.
The case, which resulted from an anonymous report to the Probation Department, naming the girl as a person who required help, resulted in the report being so helpful that the Police were able to present a case for statutory rape of a girl, 12, by a man, 46.
The accused, in a statement from the dock, denied any knowledge of the crime. His lawyer brought a man who claimed to be the anonymous writer. The man said that he did not report that the accused was the bandit who had been having sexual intercourse with the girl, but had accused the girl’s father.
The trial continued yesterday when Judge Winston Patterson summed up the evidence to the jury.
The Prosecutor was associated with Miss Konyo Sandiford, also from the DPP Chambers.
In an unsworn statement from the dock the accused had said that he was innocent of the charge and had done nothing to the girl.