Despite telling the court that he is 66 years old and suffers from prostate cancer and other medical ailments, murder convict Allan Sim, called ‘Cayenne, ’ was on Thursday sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment for the killing of his former partner, Melissa Skeete.
Handing down sentence, Justice Sandil Kissoon described the matter as another case of intimate partner violence, which continues to plague Guyanese society.
The judge said Sim stood before the court unremorseful and noted that Skeete was “viciously and violently” murdered in what he found to be a premeditated attack.
Justice Kissoon pointed out that evidence presented during the trial showed that days before the killing, Sim had threatened to kill Skeete and that she had reported the threat to the police.
The judge found no mitigating factors in Sim’s favour.
As a result, Justice Kissoon sentenced him to 35 years’ imprisonment and ordered that he become eligible for parole only after serving a minimum of 30 years.
The sentence follows a retrial after Sim’s earlier conviction and sentence were overturned on appeal.
In 2020, Sim was sentenced to 60 years’ imprisonment, with the possibility of parole after serving 40 years, for the murder of 31-year-old Melissa Skeete, a former dispatcher at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
He had been sentenced by Justice Navindra Singh at the Demerara High Court after a 12-member jury found him guilty of murdering Skeete on November 23, 2015. However, Sim later appealed both his conviction and sentence, resulting in the Court of Appeal ordering a retrial.
According to reports, Sim and Skeete shared two children. On the day of the murder, at about 15:00 hrs, Sim picked Skeete up from work in his motor car. Approximately 30 minutes later, she was discovered on Carmichael Street bleeding profusely from multiple stab wounds.
She was rushed to the GPHC but succumbed while receiving medical treatment.
During the investigation, Sim was arrested and reportedly admitted committing the offence while under caution. His motor car was later found abandoned, with the passenger seat having been refurbished.
Police records indicate that Sim turned himself in at the Alberttown Police Station on November 25, 2015, after reports surfaced linking him to Skeete’s death.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed that Skeete was stabbed no fewer than eight times before being left on the roadway.
A post-mortem examination found that a stab wound to the abdomen was primarily responsible for her death.
Relatives had alleged that Sim and Skeete were involved in an on-and-off relationship for more than a decade, despite Sim being married. Family members also claimed that he was controlling and abusive throughout the relationship.
