THE Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is expected to hand down its ruling today in the matter of convicted rapist Calvin Ramcharran against the Guyana Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold his conviction and 23-year sentence.

In 2015, a 12-member jury had found the 28-year-old guilty of the rape and brutal assault of a woman at a party in Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD) on July 22, 2012.

At the time of his conviction in the Demerara High Court, then trial judge Justice Jo-Ann Barlow had sentenced him to 23 years imprisonment for the rape, and four for the assault, but stipulated that the sentences were to be run concurrently.

Obviously miffed by the judge’s decision, Ramcharran would take the matter up with the Court of Appeal, seeking to have his conviction and sentence either set aside or overturned.

However, in January 2021, the Court of Appeal dismissed the matter, and instead upheld both conviction and sentence.
Dissatisfied with the decision of the appeals tribunal, Ramcharran subsequently moved to the CCJ for that court to do what the Court of Appeal had not done.

Presiding over the appeal at the Trinidad-based CCJ are: Justices Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, Winston Anderson, Andrew Burgess, Peter Jamadar, and Denys Barrow.

The first charge against Ramcharran alleges that on July 22, 2012, in the County of Demerara, he engaged in the sexual penetration of an adult female without her consent, while the second says that on the same date, he also assaulted the young woman, causing her actual bodily harm.

The Guyana Chronicle had reported when the matter was brought before the court that on the day in question, Ramcharran had not only tailed the young woman when she left the event to use the washroom facility, but also asked her whether she was “doing business”.

It was reportedly her negative response that prompted him to do what he did.