Seven years after he first appeared in court charged with
sexually assaulting a young boy while serving as a member of the
Guyana Police Force, Vaughn Thomas has lost an appeal that
challenged his conviction and ten-year prison sentence.
Thomas sodomising
a 15-year-old boy
But an application by his attorney, Nigel Hughes has cleared
the way for Thomas' case to go to the Caribbean Court of Justice
(CCJ). After the Appeal Court panel - Justices Claudette Singh,
Ian Chang and Nandram Kissoon - handed down the decision, Hughes
applied for leave to approach the recently inaugurated CCJ and
it was granted.
Attorney-at-law, Roger Yearwood, who appeared in association
with Hughes, had argued Thomas's case at the Appeal Court
hearing.
Thomas, an ex-policeman who was attached to the Grove Police
Station, approa-ched the Guyana Court of Appeal through his
lawyers last December, more than a year after he was found
guilty by a jury and later slapped with a ten-year sentence by
Justice Winston Moore.
He appealed on the grounds that there were mis-directions by
the judge on the issue of identification. He also argued that
the judge improperly admitted into evidence the deposition of a
deceased witness and that his confession was improperly
admitted.
Yesterday, the Appeal Court panel affirmed the conviction and
the sentence and ruled that though there were some mis-directions
in the High Court case, they were in Thomas' favour and did not
prevent him from receiving a fair trial.
Thomas was dismissed from the force after charges were
instituted against him and in November 2004, his jury trial
commenced before Justice Winston Moore.
He was accused of sodomising a 15-year-old boy on March 27,
1999 in an alleyway at Land of Canaan on the East Bank Demerara,
about 12 feet off the public road. During the trial, the victim
took the stand and testified that he was jogging along the East
Bank public road on the night in question when Thomas drove up
alongside him in police vehicle. He was topless at the time and
recalled that Thomas made an issue of this before ordering him
into the car.
The boy told the jury he begged to go home and Thomas dealt
him a slap. He said the policeman then drove to a remote alley
and committed the act. The jury had a detailed account of the
assault the boy suffered. According to the victim, Thomas told
him that what happened that night was just between the two of
them but he told his parents the minute he got home.
Hughes, who also appeared for Thomas during the High Court
trial, had argued then that the victim was told on the day of
the identification parade that the suspect was going to be on
the parade and the victim admitted this.
However, in evidence that was read in court, Thomas had
confessed to Assistant Superintendent of Police Lawrence, that
he had picked up the boy the night and later had sex with him.
On November 9, 2004, the jury unanimously found Thomas guilty
of buggery and common assault after deliberating for less than
two hours. On November 22, Justice Moore sentenced him to ten
years imprisonment.
In passing judgement, Justice Moore said the element of
aggravation was that Thomas used his uniform, which constituted
a pledge to serve and protect, for a reprehensible purpose.
Justice Moore said the accused even admitted committing the act
with the expectation that the force would have covered it up.