SIXTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD security guard Kubert George was yesterday sentenced to 60 years’ imprisonment for the murder of his paramour, Patricia Rose, called Pansy. A Demerara Assizes jury found George guilty of murder, and Justice Navindra Singh sentenced the convict to 60 years’ imprisonment, instead of imposing the death penalty.
The judge noted that Kubert George’s action in killing security guard Patricia Rose, with whom he had had a relationship, was deliberate and premeditated.

The judge told the convict: “You went there at her guard hut with a knife in your hand, and there you attacked her. You have not given any reason for your behaviour. Your action has demonstrated the extreme indifference you have for the value of human life.”

The judge then referred to statistics to show that the death sentence has been carried out on only 4 of 45 persons sentenced to death in the last 20 years.
And according to him, 15 of those sentenced to death have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.          

Justice Navindra Singh had handed over the case to the jury for their consideration and verdict after summing up the evidence to the jury yesterday morning.

George, a security guard from Quick Action Guard Service, a former GDF soldier and a professional cook, has been convicted of having stabbed his lover, Patricia Rose, called Pansy, multiple times following a row over food and money on 31st October 2008. She died on May 8, 2009 from specific shock due to:
(a) Bialateral pneumonia
(b) Peritonitis, and
(c) Cutaneous ulcers.

The prosecution, led by Mrs. Konyo Thompson and Miss Dhanika Singh, relied on a caution statement George had given to the police, in which he admitted stabbing and juking Pansy with a knife.

In his defence, the accused had admitted making a statement to the police; but in a sworn statement from the witness box, had said that while he could sign his name, he could neither read nor write, and the police had taken advantage of his disadvantage by including lies with the truth he had given them in his statement.
He said that, as a security guard, he has been attacked in the Albouystown area before, and because of that, he always walked with a knife to protect himself. He said he had told the police that he had had that knife with him when he and his lover had a tussle that lasted for about 10 minutes. He does not know how she got injured.  

He added “I did not bore her.”

Yesterday, the judge told the jury that the caution statement had been voluntarily given to the police.         

George had been represented by Attorney-at-law Peter Hugh, who had urged the mixed jury to give the accused the benefit of the doubt by returning a verdict of not guilty; but the prosecution told the jury that it was their task to give a verdict in keeping with the oath they had taken, and that they would be expected to return a verdict in accordance with the evidence that had been led.  

When the jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty of murder, Defence counsel Mr. Peter Hugh asked the judge not to impose the death penalty.